Will anastrozole replace tamoxifen in advanced breast cancer?

Abstract

Tamoxifen has been the ‘gold standard’ treatment for advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women for several years. However, data presented at the 10th European Conference on Clinical Oncology [ Vienna, Austria; September 1999 ] challenges this dominant position. Anastrozole [‘Arimidex’] has been shown to be at least as effective and well tolerated as tamoxifen in a multinational trial, and data from a North American trial indicate that anastrozole is more effective.