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Anti-oestrogenic prevention of breast cancer — the make or break point

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 2, pages 787–794 (2002)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 December 2002

Abstract

Clinical trials have shown that giving anti-oestrogens to healthy women can reduce the early incidence of breast cancer by ∼40%. However, the large numbers of women treated, compared with the few who get breast cancer, together with the not insignificant toxicity and the unknown long-term clinical benefits and risks, makes this strategy of prevention versus treatment precarious. So how can we improve the odds for the successful use of endocrine chemoprevention?

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Figure 1: Chemical structure of oestrogens and SERMs.
Figure 2: The effects of oestrogen and tamoxifen on human tissues.
Figure 3: A comparison of the effects of tamoxifen and the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole.
Figure 4: Schematic structure of oestrogen receptor.

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  1. Head of the Breast Cancer Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital, and Professor of Breast Oncology at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, SW2 5PT, UK

    Trevor J. Powles

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AKT

aromatase

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ERBB2

insulin-like growth factor

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anastrozole

letrozole

raloxifene

tamoxifen

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Powles, T. Anti-oestrogenic prevention of breast cancer — the make or break point. Nat Rev Cancer 2, 787–794 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc908

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