Compared 5 years of the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole alone with tamoxifen alone or the combination, as adjuvant therapy in postmenopausal women with localized breast cancer.
At 68 months of median follow-up anastrozole significantly prolonged disease-free survival and time to recurrence, reduced distant metastases and reduced the incidence of contralateral breast cancer, compared to tamoxifen.
The combination arm demonstrated low efficacy in this study.
Anastrozole associated with fewer side effects than tamoxifen as far as gynecological and vascular events are concerned, but fractures and arthralgias were increased.
Anastrozole pref2242ed over tamoxifen for localized hormone receptor positive breast cancer.