Study evaluates recurrence in those switched from adjuvant tamoxifen to Arimidex.

2004 JAN 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Study results were presented that evaluated breast cancer recurrence rates in postmenopausal women who had been treated for 2-3 years with adjuvant tamoxifen and then switched to Arimidex (anastrozole) Tablets.

These patients were compared to those who continued on tamoxifen therapy for the full 5 years of primary adjuvant treatment.

At a median follow-up time of 36 months, 45 events had been observed in the tamoxifen group (13 local/regional recurrences, 19 distant recurrences, 10 second primaries, 3 deaths unrelated to breast cancer) and 17 events observed in the Arimidex group (2 local/regional recurrences, 10 distant recurrences, 5 second primaries, and no deaths unrelated to breast cancer).

"This gives us important, additional information on the use of Arimidex in the primary adjuvant setting," said Lead Investigator Francesco Boccardo, MD, National Cancer Research Institute and University of Genoa, Italy. "Initial therapy is a critical treatment decision point, particularly for patients that are node positive, because of their higher risk of recurrence in the first 5 years after diagnosis."

The study evaluated 448 postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor- positive and node-positive early breast cancer on adjuvant treatment with tamoxifen (20 mg/day) for 2-3 years. The women were randomly assigned to continue with tamoxifen for 5 years or switch to Arimidex (1 mg/day) to complete a total of 5 years of primary adjuvant hormonal therapy. A total of 225 and 223 patients were assigned to continue on ...