The Research Status And Progress Of Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy For Early Breast Cancer

Adjuvant endocrine therapy reduces the risk of recurrence and death of hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer patients. Tamoxifen is the traditional standard therapy for decades, and it is still the first choice of treatment for pre-menopausal women.The main gain of endocrine therapy is against high-risk cancers, and tamoxifen gives very similar benefit for low-risk disease.In post-menopausal women, only letrozole has been shown to improve the overall survival, although aromatase inhibitors (AIs) (letrozole, anastrozole, or exemestane) are superior to tamoxifen in preventing local recurrence. Treatment has been given for around 5 years traditionally,but many breast cancer women remain at risk of recurrence for 10 years or more.In recent years, several studies shows 10 years endocrine therapy is superior to the traditional treatment for 5 years. If given for a further 5 years, the AIs and more recently tamoxifen, have been shown to reduce further the risk of late recurrence in breast cancer women after 5 years of tamoxifen treatment.The important topics for further research are to select the patients most likely to benefit from long-term adjuvant endocrine therapy. The comparative benefits of these two options and the optimum treatment need to be discussed.Ovarian suppression is of similar efficacy but currently it is need more evidence to support the combination therapy by adding this to tamoxifen or AIs considering the additional morbidity.Based on the medical evidence, this article reviews the research status and progress of adjuvant endocrine therapy for early breast cancer.