Aromatase inhibitor plus ovarian suppression as adjuvant therapy in premenopausal women with breast cancer

Abstract

The goal of adjuvant hormonal therapy for breast cancer is to prevent recurrence by eradicating micrometastatic disease. Recent studies have shown that the use of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) as adjuvant therapy improves outcomes for postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer compared to adjuvant endocrine therapy with tamoxifen alone. The research question has been raised whether AIs would have similar improvements in disease-free survival (DFS) in premenopausal women with ER-positive breast cancer. Combining 2 phase 3 clinical trials (n = 4,690), Pagani and colleagues randomized premenopausal women with ER-positive early breast cancer to exemestane plus ovarian suppression or tamoxifen plus ovarian suppression for a period of 5 y. After a median follow-up of 68 months, DFS was 91.1% in the AI group and 87.3% in the tamoxifen group. In premenopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive early breast cancer, adjuvant treatment with exemestane plus ovarian suppression, as compared with tamoxifen plus ovarian suppression, significantly reduced recurrence.

Keywords: Adjuvant; ER-positive cancer; aromatase inhibitor; breast cancer; estrogen receptor; exemestane; hormonal therapy; premenopausal; tamoxifen.