Drug cuts recurrence of breast cancer.Letrozole letrozole /let·ro·zole/ (let´rah-zol) an antineoplastic used in the treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women. let·ro·zole (l t, a drug that derails the body's production of estrogen, reduces breast cancer recurrences in women who have exhausted the usefulness of the anticancer drug tamoxifen tamoxifen /ta·mox·i·fen/ (tah-mok´si-fen) a nonsteroidal antiestrogen used as the citrate salt in the prophylaxis and treatment of breast cancer.ta·mox·i·fen (t -m, a new drug trial has revealed. Tamoxifen stops breast cancers in many women by interfering with estrogen's proliferative pro·lif·er·ous (- r- s)adj. effect on tumor cells. But taking tamoxifen for more than 5 years provides no additional benefit, compared with going off the drug after that period. Tending to proliferate. Researchers identified 5,157 post-menopausal women who had taken tamoxifen for about 5 years and randomly assigned them to take either an inert pill or letrozole, which wipes out nearly all estrogen in the body. The scientists stopped the study when it became clear that the group receiving letrozole had roughly three-fifths as many breast cancer recurrences as did women getting the placebo, says study coauthor Paul E. Goss, a medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. Researchers then offered letrozole to all participants, each of whom had been followed for 2.4 years on average. The report appears in the Nov. 6 New England Journal of Medicine. Letrozole disables an enzyme called aromatase aromatase /aro·ma·tase/ (ah-ro´mah-tas) an enzyme activity in the endoplasmic reticulum that catalyzes the conversion of testosterone to the aromatic compound estradiol. a·roma·tase (, which the body needs to make estrogen. Another aromatase inhibitor aromatase inhibitor n. , the drug anastrozole anastrozole /anas·tro·zole/ (ah-nas´trah-zol?) an antineoplastic used for treatment of advanced breast carcinoma in postmenopausal women., is also being tested for cancer-fighting abilities (SN: 11/24/01, p. 327). A drug that inhibits tumor growth, especially breast cancer, by inhibiting the enzyme aromatase and thereby lowering estrogen levels in the blood or in tumor tissues. Although tamoxifen's anticancer effect levels out at 5 years, there's no question that the drug imparts a residual benefit even after long-term users stop taking it. Indeed, no one knows how long the benefits of tamoxifen or the aromatase inhibitors might linger. That and the question of whether the drugs might interact in good or bad ways when given simultaneously are the topics of several studies now under way. Letrozole is marketed as Femara Fe·mar·a (f -mär![]() ) A trademark for the drug letrozole. |
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