Aromatase inhibitors stop the production of estrogen in those who are post-menopausal and are mainly used to treat hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Here’s how they work.
Aromatase inhibitors cause unwanted side effects. More and more women are choosing not to take them, but is this a good idea?
Estrogen play an important role in overall health in humans—it protects your heart, lungs, eyes, brain, bones, skin, and hair, averts cognitive decline, and does so much more. Estrogen is also prot…
Background: The association between aromatase inhibitors and cardiovascular outcomes among women with breast cancer is controversial. Given the discrepant findings from randomized controlled trials and observational studies, additional studies are needed to address this safety concern. Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked to the Hospital Episode Statistics and Office for National Statistics databases. The study population consisted of women newly diagnosed with breast cancer initiating hormonal therapy with aromatase inhibitors or tamoxifen between April 1, 1998, and February 29, 2016. We usedCox proportional hazards models with inverse probability of treatment and censoring weighting to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs comparing new users of aromatase inhibitors with new users of tamoxifen for each of the study outcomes (myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, heart failure, and cardiovascular mortality). Results: The study population consisted of 23 525 patients newly diagnosed with breast cancer, of whom 17 922 initiated treatment with either an aromatase inhibitor or tamoxifen (8139 and 9783, respectively). The use of aromatase inhibitors was associated with a significantly increased risk of heart failure (incidence rate, 5.4 versus 1.8 per 1000 person-years; HR, 1.86 [95% CI, 1.14–3.03]) and cardiovascular mortality (incidence rate, 9.5 versus 4.7 per 1000 person-years; HR, 1.50 [95% CI, 1.11–2.04]) compared with the use of tamoxifen. Aromatase inhibitors were associated with elevated HRs, but with CIs including the null value, for myocardial infarction (incidence rate, 3.9 versus 1.8 per 1000 person-years; HR, 1.37 [95% CI, 0.88–2.13]) and ischemic stroke (incidence rate, 5.6 versus 3.2 per 1000 person-years; HR, 1.19 [95% CI, 0.82–1.72]). Conclusions: In this population-based study, aromatase inhibitors were associated with increased risks of heart failure and cardiovascular mortality compared with tamoxifen. There were also trends toward increased risks, although nonsignificant, of myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke. The increased risk of cardiovascular events associated with aromatase inhibitors should be balanced with their favorable clinical benefits compared with tamoxifen.
Aromatase inhibitors cause unwanted side effects. More and more women are choosing not to take them, but is this a good idea?
The current oncological recommendations for anti-hormone therapy (endocrine therapy) for postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer vary. Some oncologists recommend aromatase inhibitors fo…
Virginia Kaklamani, MD and Heather McArthur, MD begin by discussing new data regarding the use of aromatase inhibitors and ovarian function suppression in women with HR+ early breast cancer.
Joint pain is a common amongst breast cancer patients using aromatase inhibitors, such as anastrozole. Learn more about the various ways of managing this symptom.
Awhile back, I wrote two posts about the dark side of aromatase inhibitors, or as I like to call them, the drugs we love to hate. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Those two posts continue …
And how they’re used to treat breast cancer.
Aromatase Answers: Unraveling the Role of Aromatase Inhibitors in Anavar. Learn how these inhibitors work to prevent conversion of testosterone to estrogen in bodybuilding.
Discoverer of selective aromatase inhibitors for breast-cancer treatment.
Navigating the complex world of estrogen and breast cancer can be incredibly confusing. New and hard-to-say words, such as aromatase inhibitors, are entering your vocabulary, and their concepts seem tangled up. On top of everything thrown at you, the shock of breast cancer is still making its way around your mind. What should I take? Are
Aromatase Inhibitors (AIs) treat postmenopausal estrogen receptor positive tumours, which constitute the majority of breast cancer patients. This comprehensive volume brings together the current knowledge from different relevant areas, including molecular mechanisms and translational aspects of drug resistance in AIs. Topics covered include research, experimental, and clinical data specifically focused on AI resistance in breast cancer. The volume will include three sections. The first section covers general knowledge about aromatase inhibitors, including regulation of aromatase genes, and structure and function of aromatase protein. The second section provides the detailed mechanisms of resistance to AIs, while the third section explores prediction of resistance and potential strategies to overcome resistance. Breast cancer is the most common female cancer and AIs significantly improve treatments outcomes compatibly to previously used endocrine treatments. However 10-15% of post-operative patients develop a relapse during adjuvant treatment with AIs; about 25-50% of the patients do not respond to AIs in neo-adjuvant or metastatic setting, and the majority of metastatic patients who initially respond develop resistance within 3 years. There is an important need to understand these mechanisms of resistance in order to develop methods of preventing or overcoming the resistance to AIs, which will ensure a more successful outcome in treating breast cancer.