Title: Early switch with aromatase inhibitors as adjuvant hormonal therapy for postmenopausal breast cancer: Pooled-analysis of 8,794 patients
Abstract: 635 Background: The magnitude of the survival benefit of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) after 2–3 years of tamoxifen as adjuvant hormonal therapy for early breast cancer is still unclear. We performed a pooled-analysis of phase III trials, to look how much advantages adjuvant the “early switch” strategy add over standard tamoxifen for 5 years. Methods: All phase III trials were considered eligible. A pooled analysis was accomplished, and event-based relative risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were derived. Significant differences in primary outcome (EFS and RFS, event- and relapse-free survival), and secondary outcomes (OS, overall survival, deaths in absence of progression, other cancers and toxicities), were explored. Magnitude outcome measures were: absolute benefits (AB) and number of patients needed to treat (NNT). Heterogeneity test was applied as well. Results: Four trials designed to look if AIs after 2–3 yrs of TAM improve EFS (8794 patients) were gathered. Conclusions: Considered all the available phase III trials, the early switch strategy improves survival over standard tamoxifen for 5 years, with a different toxicity profile. The lack of significant heterogeneity in the analysis underscores the homogenous effect across all trials. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-06-20
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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