Tamoxifen arimidex comparison

Ganz, MD, and colleagues No clear efficacy differences were seen between the two treatments [anastrozole vs tamoxifen]. For more coverage on these two trials from the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, see pages 24 and The primary outcome was breast cancer—free interval defined as time from randomization to any breast cancer event, consisting of local, regional, or distant recurrence, or contralateral breast cancer, invasive disease, or ductal carcinoma in situ, on intention-to-treat analysis.

Reduced Recurrence With Anastrozole Median follow-up was 9. Five-year breast cancer—free interval rates were Estimated overall survival was Ian F Tannock The year analysis of the Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination ATAC trial1 continues to show a difference in its primary endpoint of disease-free survival, which favours anastrozole as adjuvant treatment for postmenopausal women with hormone-responsive breast cancer.

Ultimately, however, clinical trials have two aims: Anastrozole has failed to meet these criteria when compared with tamoxifen. The choice of disease-free survival as the primary endpoint in trials assessing adjuvant therapy was presumably made with the expectation that early differences in this endpoint would predict later differences in overall survival.

The year analysis of the ATAC trial invalidates this assumption—overall survival remains similar in the two groups. With no improvement in survival, the choice between adjuvant anastrozole and tamoxifen should depend on which drug has better safety and tolerability. The investigators claim that safety criteria support anastrozole.

In the ATAC trial, serious adverse events were defined in a standard way but there was no prespecified checklist. So this part of the trial was stopped. The women who had been taking both went on to take one or the other. So not everyone taking part in this trial had hormone receptor positive cancer. When they first started to look at how well the treatments worked, they discovered that they worked best in the 5, women who had hormone receptor positive breast cancer.

Of these, 2, women were taking anastrozole 2, women were taking tamoxifen The research team looked at how good the treatments were at stopping the cancer coming back. They found that 10 years after starting treatment, the cancer had come back in About 1 in 5 women The women taking anastrozole were less likely to have problems with vaginal bleeding and discharge, blood clots in the veins deep vein thrombosis, or DVT and hot flushes.

Earlier ATAC results found that Arimidex was more effective than tamoxifen in reducing the risk of recurrence of early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Other studies comparing tamoxifen to the other two aromatase inhibitors Aromasin and Femara have shown similar results. Earlier ATAC results showed that women taking Arimidex had an overall lower risk of recurrence compared to women taking tamoxifen.

Five years after diagnosis: Earlier ATAC results also showed that women taking Arimidex had a lower risk of the cancer coming back in a part of the body away from the breast called distant or metastatic recurrence compared to women taking tamoxifen.

These latest results showed this link between lower distant recurrence risk and Arimidex continued. The latest ATAC analysis also found that the overall risk of side effects both serious and not-so-serious was lower for Arimidex compared to tamoxifen.

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