AIs are best option for breast cancer, says panel

A panel of leading breast cancer experts has concluded that tamoxifen is no longer the most effective treatment option for post-menopausal women suffering early, hormone-sensitive forms of the disease. The consensus, which was published in the latest issue of the journal Current Medical Research and Opinion, advises that physicians, who have not yet done so, should switch to prescribing aromatase inhibitors such as AstraZeneca's Arimidex (anastrozole) for treatment of the condition.

The International Aromatase Inhibitor Expert Panel, which included 24 leading cancer clinicians from Europe, the USA, Australia, China and Brazil, agreed that, with successful post-surgical treatment using an AI-based regimen, breast cancer patients could potentially be completely cured of the illness.

The panel's statement also contained several evidence-based recommendations, including that all patient subgroups will derive benefit from initial AI adjuvant therapy and that AIs are associated with fewer adverse gynecological events, and therefore have a greater level of treatment compliance. The paper added that the increased risk of osteoporotic fractures that is linked to AI use in comparison with tamoxifen is predictable, whereas the latter drug's reported cardiac side effects are not.