Study: Exemestane Better Than Tamoxifen for Advanced Breast Cancer

Exemestane, a member of a newer class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors, may be a more effective than tamoxifen in treating advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women, according to Belgian researchers.

Exemestane currently is used to treat advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women whose tumors have stopped responding to tamoxifen, and researchers sought to determine if it might be a more effective alternative to the older drug.

In the trial, researchers randomly assigned 120 postmenopausal women with breast cancer that had spread to other areas of the body to daily treatment with exemestane or tamoxifen.

Independent reviewers found improvement in 41 percent of women treated with exemestane compared to only 17 percent of the women treated with tamoxifen, according to a report in the journal Annals of Oncology.

Overall, the disease improved or got no worse for at least six months in 57 percent of women in the exemestane group and 42 percent in the tamoxifen group.

"The results were found very promising," said Dr. Robert J. Paridaens of University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Leuven, Belgium.

He said the results led to a decision to recruit additional patients for a larger phase III trial and expressed home that a further statistical comparison of exemestane versus tamoxifen would be possible by end of this year.

Other Sources: Annals of Oncology