Hormonal therapy for primary breast cancer: scientific rationale and status of clinical research.

Endocrine therapies have played an important role in the management of breast cancer for many years. Tamoxifen had been the unchallenged standard in the adjuvant setting until recently. Data from recent clinical trials have emphasized the emerging roles of aromatase inhibitors and ovarian ablation in patients with early breast cancer.

Implications of first-line adjuvant treatment with aromatase inhibitors in recurrent metastatic breast cancer.

The role of adjuvant tamoxifen therapy has gone unchallenged until recently. With the introduction of the selective aromatase inhibitors (AIs), the paradigm for treatment of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women is changing. New data from randomized clinical trials have shown the impact of the use of an AI compared with tamoxifen or in sequence with tamoxifen.