Tamoxifen therapy for patients with breast cancer

摘要

Christina Davies and colleagues (March 9, p 8O5)1 show that extending tamoxifen from 5 to 10 years reduces recurrence and mortality for women with oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. They estimate that 10 years of treatment would nearly halve breast cancer mortality. However, this result raises the question of long-term adherence to treatment.We have recently done a meta-regression analysis that synthesises the available data for adherence to hormonal therapy in breast cancer,2 based on 29 observational studies selected from a comprehensive qualitative review.3 Taking into account duration and type of treatment as well as study methodology, we noted that only 53% of patients continued their treatment for 5 years.