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OVERVIEW
The purpose of this page is to take the notable study titled “Extending Aromatase-Inhibitor Adjuvant Therapy To 10 Years” (Goss et al. 2016, The New England Journal Of Medicine) and distill down its major takeaways for clinical practice.
WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS STUDY?
Before this study the standard of care was to treat hormone-receptor–positive early breast cancer in postmenopausal women with an aromatase inhibitor for 5 years as up-front mono-therapy (or after tamoxifen therapy). The authors of this study aimed to see if there was an added benefit of extending this treatment course to 10 years.
WHAT ARE THE MAJOR TAKEAWAYS?
Overall there were a few things that this study highlighted:
- The additional 5 years of aromatase inhibitor treatment resulted in a 3.2% absolute risk reduction for recurrence of the primary breast cancer or occurrence of new cancer in the contralateral breast compared to the placebo group
- This benefit was counterbalanced by a significant increase in bone fractures (14% in aromatase inhibitor vs. 9% in control)
WHAT CAN WE CONCLUDE?
The decisions whether to choose treating fro 5 or 10 years with an aromatase inhibitor should take into account BOTH the risk reduction for breast cancer recurrence AND the increased risk for bone fractures with the longer therapy. Ultimately this decision may need to be made on a case by case basis.
Page Updated: 08.16.2016