Comment: Combining tamoxifen with ovarian suppression reduced recurrence of some breast cancers

SABCS 2014

9 - 11 Dec 2014

Published: 12 Dec 2014

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Prof Carlos Arteaga - Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, USA

Dr Arteaga offers commentary on some new research at SABCS 2014 for ecancertv.

Here, he discusses Dr Prudence Francis's presentation on the combination of ovarian suppression and tamoxifen to reduce recurrence for women with premenopausal breast cancer.

He notes that this study took particular note of women who had regained ovarian function after chemotherapy, which is useful information for young patients.

Watch Dr Francis presenting her research, see the interview, or read the news story for more.

What about this presentation on ovarian function suppression in pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women having Tamoxifen therapy?

Again, this is a very important study. She underlined that one potential difference with other previous studies is the fact that this study took care of identifying women that had regained ovarian function, they had regained ovarian function after chemotherapy. I was very stimulated by the data showing that women under 35, 94 of them regained ovarian function after chemo in that particular group. Again, the addition of exemestane on ovarian suppression was much better than Tamoxifen on ovarian suppression and clearly more beneficial than Tamoxifen alone.

So the message, then, are you convinced that very young women should have ovarian function suppression added to their endocrine therapy?

Based on that study I’m very persuaded, as she said, that I have patients who are committed to ten years of Tamoxifen or have started to use Tamoxifen and I think I’m going to have to have a conversation with them about this data.