A practical overview of aromatase inhibitors in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer

Illustrations

Figure 1 The use of adjuvant tamoxifen is currently recommended for five years. In postmenopausal women, three different trials have used the AIs at different time points during these five years. ATAC trial used anastrozole versus tamoxifen from the beginning, while MA-17 trial used letrozole at the completion of tamoxifen therapy. A sequential approach was explored in both IES and ITA trial in which after 2-3 years of initial tamoxifen treatment, patients were switched to exemestane or anastrozole respectively, to complete a total of five years of therapy.