Identification of patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer who need adjuvant tamoxifen therapy for more than 5 years

Abstract

Extended hormonal therapy with tamoxifen for > 5 years has improved disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer patients. The aim of this study was to identify the HR-positive breast cancer women who need adjuvant tamoxifen for > 5 years. Methods: Between 1990 and 2004, 1104 HR-positive breast cancer patients who had received tamoxifen treatment at our institution and had been disease free for at least 6 years were included in this analysis. Univariate and multivariate analyses of prognostic factors for late recurrence were performed using the binary logistic regression model. Results: During a median follow-up period of 10.9 years after surgery, 70 patients died and 99 showed recurrence. In multivariate analysis, age 40 years and negative lymph node status, 566 patients) groups. The recurrence rates were 14.6% and 3.5% in the high-risk and low-risk groups, respectively. Patients in the high-risk group had poorer disease-free survival (p 5 years.

Keywords

• adjuvant therapy
• breast cancer
• hormonal therapy
• late recurrence
• tamoxifen