Available in Puerto Rico, United States
Younger age at diagnosis is an adverse prognostic factor in early breast cancer: women
who are less than 35 years of age at diagnosis are more likely to die from their disease
than their older counterparts following standard treatments. There remains a pressing
need for advancements in therapeutic options for this patient population. One
increasingly utilized option is ovarian suppression, which was first reported as
treatment for advanced breast cancer in 1896 and has been examined in a multitude of
clinical trials over the past century. As chemotherapeutic options became more
commonplace for breast cancer therapy, however, the role of ovarian suppression became
uncertain.
In the pre-genomic era, several studies evaluated the role of ovarian suppression
compared to chemotherapy, with conflicting results. These studies either looked at
ovarian suppression alone or at tamoxifen compared to chemotherapy. A meta-analysis
examining LHRH-agonists (luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone) in the Early Breast
Cancer Overview group (LHRH-agonists in Early Breast Cancer Overview group 2007) showed
that when LHRH-agonists were added to tamoxifen, chemotherapy, or both, there was a 12.7%
reduction in the risk of recurrence and a 15.1% reduction in the risk of death. When
compared to chemotherapy, LHRH-agonists appeared to be equally as effective, especially
if patients were less than 40 years of age. These older studies, conducted in the
pre-taxane/anthracycline era, typically used CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and
fluorouracil) chemotherapy, and were designed prior to the use of genomic assays .
3960Patients around the world