ArticleBritish journal of cancer2011
Early operable breast cancer in elderly women treated with an aromatase inhibitor letrozole as sole therapy.
Article in British journal of cancer, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating clinical response to primary endocrine therapy in elderly breast cancer patients in routine practice.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2025Article
- Assessment of the Androgen Receptor in Older Women with Primary Breast Cancer: Association with a Panel of Biomarkers and Breast Cancer Specific Survival.Advances in therapy · 2023Article
- Personalising therapy for early-stage oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer in older women.The lancet. Healthy longevity · 2022Review
- Observational cohort study to determine the degree and causes of variation in the rate of surgery or primary endocrine therapy in older women with operable breast cancer.European journal of surgical oncology : the journal of the European Society of Surgical Oncology and the British Association of Surgical Oncology · 2021Observational
- Why are older women not having surgery for breast cancer? A qualitative study.Psycho-oncology · 2015Article
- A UK national survey of breast surgeons on primary endocrine therapy of early operable breast cancer.Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrimary endocrine therapy (PET) with aromatase inhibitors (AIs) is an option in elderly patients unfit for or unwilling to undergo surgery. We studied the outcome of patients treated with letrozole as PET.
methodsPatients with early oestrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PR)-positive breast cancer treated with letrozole from February 2001 to September 2009 were reviewed. Inoperable and locally advanced tumours were excluded. Reasons for offering PET, response, survival, cause of death, time to initial and best response, fracture incidence, and late failure rates were studied.
resultsIn all, 104 patients received PET due to frailty (n=48), comorbidity (n=30), old age (n=9), and patient preference (n=17). Median follow-up was 56 months (4-106). Eighty-five cancers responded to letrozole (stable disease (SD, n=19), reduction in size (PR, n=42), and complete response ((CR), n=24)). Median survival was 51 months (4-103), time to initial response (PR/CR) 4.5 months (2-24), and time to best response 8.5 months (3-50). Letrozole was stopped in 25 patients due to progressive disease (n=19), side effects (n=5), and patient choice (n=1). Only 12 of 49 deaths were from breast cancer.
conclusionLetrozole is a reasonable alternative in elderly women with early ER/PR-positive invasive breast cancer who are unfit or unwilling to undergo standard therapy.
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