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Comparative Study
. 2018 Feb;144(2):337-341.
doi: 10.1007/s00432-017-2539-7. Epub 2017 Nov 2.

Survival benefit of tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitor in male and female breast cancer

Holm Eggemann  1 , Udo Altmann  2 , Serban-Dan Costa  3 , Atanas Ignatov  3
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Survival benefit of tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitor in male and female breast cancer

Holm Eggemann et al. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Our goal was to compare the survival advantage of tamoxifen (TAM) and aromatase inhibitor (AI) in female (FBC) and male breast cancer (MBC).

Patients and methods: We performed a retrospective study of 2785 FBC and 257 MBC patients treated with hormonal therapy.

Results: The median follow-up was 106 months (range 3-151 months) and 42 months (range 2-115 months) for FBC and MBC, respectively. The patients were divided into two groups according to the hormonal therapy used: TAM-treated and AI-treated. MBC was characterized by older age, advanced tumor stage, and higher rate of lymph node metastases, in comparison with FBC. Matching analysis was performed using six prognostic criteria: patient age, tumor stage, tumor grade, lymph node status, human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2) status, and administration of chemotherapy. The female and male patients were matched 2:1. In this analysis, 316 women and 158 men treated with TAM, and 60 women and 30 men treated with AI, were included. The overall survival (OS) was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and was compared between FBC and MBC. TAM-treated FBC and MBC patients had similar 5-year OS, 85.1 and 89.2%, respectively (p = 0.972). Notably, FBC patients treated with AI had significantly greater 5-year OS (85.0%) in comparison with AI-treated MBC patients (5-year OS of 73.3%; p = 0.028).

Conclusions: The OS of TAM-treated patients with MBC was similar to the OS of TAM-treated FBC patients, whereas AI treatment is associated with poorer survival of MBC patients.

Keywords: Aromatase inhibitor; Male breast cancer; Tamoxifen.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study design
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Kaplan–Meier analysis of overall survival for patients treated with a TAM or b AI. AI aromatase inhibitor, FBC female breast cancer, MBC male breast cancer, HER2 human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, TAM tamoxifen
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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