Abstract
Hormone therapy in patients with hormone-dependent breast cancer is an important part of comprehensive cancer treatment. Premenopausal patients continue to be treated with tamoxifen, and in high-risk patients we consider the administration of the aromatase inhibitor exemestane with or without ovarian ablation.
The duration of adjuvant treatment is extended; small low-risk cancers can be treated for only 5 years, while high-risk cancers with lymph node positivity and higher proliferative activity benefit from extended administration up to 10 years. Multigene assays can identify patients at low risk of recurrence, where adjuvant chemotherapy is not necessary, and patients at high risk of recurrence, where chemotherapy is fully indicated.
A novel treatment option for these patients at high risk of recurrence is the adjuvant administration of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors or abemaciclib.