DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000293797.56178.8b

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Issn Print: 0276-2234

Publication Date: 2005/12/25


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Early-Stage Breast Cancer: For Most Women, Five Years of Hormone Therapy is Sufficientears

Charlene Laino

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DENVER—For most women undergoing hormone therapy for early-stage breast cancer, five years of standard tamoxifen treatment is sufficient, a new study suggests.
The study, presented here at the ASTRO Annual Meeting, showed that only the 30% of women with factors placing them at high risk of recurrence when they first started tamoxifen treatment would have benefited from additional therapy with aromatase inhibitors, said researcher Gary M. Freedman, MD, a staff radiation oncologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center.
Ever since a landmark study led by Paul Goss, MD, showed that letrozole can reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 43% in women previously treated with tamoxifen (NEJM 2003;349:1793–1802), “it's become common practice to automatically start women on letrozole or another aromatase inhibitor after completion of tamoxifen,” Dr. Freedman said. “But our analysis suggests it shouldn't be automatic. Treatment needs to be individualized.

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