Letrozole, a new oral aromatase inhibitor: randomised trial comparing 2.5 mg daily, 0.5 mg daily and aminoglutethimide in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer. Letrozole International Trial Group (AR/BC3).

Background: The study compares letrozole and aminoglutethimide (AG), a standard therapy for postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer, previously treated with antioestrogens.

Patients And Methods: 555 women were randomly assigned letrozole 2.5 mg once daily (n = 185), letrozole 0.

Letrozole, a new oral aromatase inhibitor for advanced breast cancer: double-blind randomized trial showing a dose effect and improved efficacy and tolerability compared with megestrol acetate.

Purpose: To compare two doses of letrozole and megestrol acetate (MA) as second-line therapy in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer previously treated with antiestrogens.

Patients And Methods: Five hundred fifty-one patients with locally advanced, locoregionally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive letrozole 2.5 mg (n = 174), letrozole 0.

Clinical use of aromatase inhibitors in the treatment of advanced breast cancer.

The aim of endocrine therapy is to reduce the estrogenic stimulus for tumour growth. After failure of tamoxifen--the standard "first-line" hormonotherapy for advanced breast cancer (ABC)--the most frequently prescribed endocrine therapies are progestins and aromatase inhibitors (AIs) ("second-line" hormonotherapy). Estrogen deprivation through AIs provides effective treatment of hormone-dependent ABC in postmenopausal (PMP) women.

Letrozole (CGS 20267), a new oral aromatase inhibitor for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal patients.

Letrozole is a new orally, active, potent, and highly specific non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor. Letrozole is about 200 and 10000 times as potent as aminoglutethimide (AG) in vitro and in vivo, respectively. Letrozole was tested in healthy men and postmenopausal women and in postmenopausal patients with advanced breast cancer (ABC).

CGS 16949A, a new aromatase inhibitor in the treatment of breast cancer--a phase I study.

Forty-six postmenopausal women with either locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer were treated with the aromatase inhibitor CGS 16949A in three different daily doses (0.3 mg, 0.6 mg and 0.

Interleukin-6 induction by a muramyltripeptide derivative in cancer patients.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) was measured in sera from 26 patients with advanced malignancies before and after an I.V. infusion of muramyltripeptide-phosphatidylethanolamine (MPT-PE) in liposomes.

How long should long be? Long-term trials in rheumatic diseases.

In the interests of the safety of patients it is necessary to collect long-term clinical data. It is often assumed that the longer the trial the better. However, the longer the trial the more scientific compromises are necessary if it is to be carried out in a practical way.

The value and results of long-term studies with diclofenac sodium (Voltarol).

The results of 940 patients treated with diclofenac for 3 to 24 months in comparative and non-comparative trials are presented. Maximal improvement tended to occur in the first 3 to 6 months of treatment and was generally maintained. Diclofenac was at least as effective as equivalent doses of indomethacin and naproxen and, when treatment lasts more than 3 months, may be more effective.

A methodological study of some factors influencing the reporting of symptoms.

The spontaneous occurrence of symptoms that are often regarded as adverse drug reactions was studied by means of open questionnaires or by a 38-item checklist of symptoms. Of the 416 respondents who returned an analyzable questionnaire, only 233 (56 per cent) were healthy (defined as having had no illness and/or having taken no medication in the previous three days). Using the open questionnaires, one or more symptoms were reported by 15 per cent of healthy persons (N equals 155) and by 69 per cent of a group of 118 persons who had been ill and/or who had taken medication in the previous three days.