With recent results showing letrozole and anastrozole to be superior to tamoxifen as initial therapy for advanced disease, the aromatase inhibitors are poised to establish their place in the adjuvant therapy of postmenopausal receptor-positive breast cancer. A review of the rationale, design, and preliminary results of the ongoing adjuvant trials that include aromatase inhibitors will be presen...

Despite ongoing therapeutic innovations, metastatic breast cancer (MBC) remains a treatable but incurable disease. In the developed world, a diagnosis of MBC without a preceding diagnosis of early stage disease is a rare event. However, approximately one-third of women with early stage breast cancer ultimately experience a distant recurrence. Because the majority of breast cancers express estro...

Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are commonly used as adjuvant treatment in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer. With both steroidal and nonsteroidal AIs, AI-induced arthralgia is frequently observed. The mechanism of AI-induced arthralgia remains unknown, and the data available from clinical trails using AIs are limited. We review the pertinent information from a ...

More than two-thirds of breast cancers occur in post-menopausal women, and depend on the estrogens for their proliferation and survival. For the treatment of estrogen-dependent breast cancers, two major treatment options are now available. One is selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) such as Tamoxifen and another is aromatase inhibitor such as Anastrozole, Letrozole and Exemestane, which...

Aromatase is the rate-limiting enzyme in estrogen biosynthesis and a key target in breast cancer treatment. Its ovary-specific promoter, PII, is induced in response to protein kinase A (PKA) activation. It has been proposed that breast cancer susceptibility gene 1, BRCA1, is involved in negative regulation of aromatase PII activity. Surprisingly, inhibition of PKA pathway by inhibitor H89 eleva...

Aromatase, an endomembrane-bound cytochrome P450, is the key enzyme of estrogen biosynthesis. Aromatase inhibitors, therefore, are clinically important tools in the treatment of estrogen-dependent tumor growth. To improve the specificity of these tools, inhibition at the nucleic acid level was examined. An antisense oligodeoxynucleotide complementary to the translation start region of human aro...

Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are standard of care in the adjuvant setting of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive breast cancer. Despite their beneficial effects on survival outcomes in breast cancer, AIs-induced arthralgia (AIA) is a common side effect which may lead to drug discontinuation and decreased AIs adherence among patients. So far, the exact pathophysiology of AIA is sti...

Background Letrozole is an aromatase inhibitor which can decrease estrogen production in peripheral tissues and endometriosis. Danazol, as an androgen, inhibits estrogen production in ovaries and recently has been introduced as an aromatase inhibitor. This study was designed to compare the effects of Danazol with Letrozole on endometriosis symptom relief. MaterialsAndMethods This study was a ra...

Steroid profiling was introduced to determine the endogenous steroid misuse in sports. Thus, screening for the exogenous use of these prohibited substances can be established by monitoring a range of endogenous steroids, which constitute the steroid profile and evaluate their concentrations and ratios against reference values. The steroid profiling is currently based on population statistics. A...

Results from multiple clinical trials involving aromatase inhibitors have added to the knowledge base relating to endocrine therapy of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer. In the extended adjuvant setting, data from the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group 6a trial showed an advantage for anastrozole following 5 years of tamoxifen treatment, cons...