Hormonal treatments produce similar quality of life outcomes in DCIS

Описание: Prof Ganz talks to ecancertv at SABCS 2015 about secondary end point data from the phase III NSABP B-35 clinical trial that compared 5 years’ treatment with anastrozole or tamoxifen in postmenopausal women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

The primary end point results of the NSABP B-35 trial were reported at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2015 annual meeting and showed that anastrozole was at least as effective and safe as tamoxifen. There was a slight advantage of anastrozole perhaps, Dr Ganz notes in the interview. Indeed women where more likely to remain breast-cancer free at 10 years if they had received the aromatase inhibitor.

Patient reported outcomes such as quality of life were reported in a sub-study of the trial and Dr Ganz reported data on more than 1000 women who has participated and completed the Short-Form 12. There were no differences, however, between the women treated with anastrozole and those treated with tamoxifen when using the Physical Component Summary (p=0.16) or the Mental Component Summary (p=0.38) of this questionnaire.

As expected there were differences in terms of the symptoms, with the typical tamoxifen side effects of hot flashes seen and more musculoskeletal pain and vaginal pain and discomfort during sex in those treated with anastrozole.

What these data show is that there are choices, Dr Ganz says. Before tamoxifen was the only approved option in DCIS but the NSABP B-35 and other trial data now show that aromatase inhibitor therapy, specifically anastrozole, is also of benefit.