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Part of the book series: Recent Results in Cancer Research ((RECENTCANCER,volume 91))

Abstract

The overall response rate in advanced breast cancer patients treated with endocrine therapies is in the range of 30% [1, 2]. In recent years it has been demonstrated that response to various forms of endocrine treatment can be predicted in approximately 60% of cases provided that the patient’s tumor tissue contains the estrogen receptor (ER) protein [3]. This response rate is in the same range as that obtained with cytotoxic therapy [1, 2]. Furthermore, a response to endocrine therapy seems to predict that a response to subsequent cytotoxic treatment will be of longer duration and lead to prolonged survival [4, 5]. Another aspect of endocrine therapy is that new remissions can be achieved when using subsequent endocrine therapies [6–11]. Therefore, taking into account the fact that treatment of patients with metastatic disease is, at best, palliative, it appears that there is a sound clinical rationale behind the use of the relatively nontoxic endocrine treatment modalities.

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Rose, C., Mouridsen, H.T. (1984). Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer with Tamoxifen. In: Leclercq, G., Toma, S., Paridaens, R., Heuson, J.C. (eds) Clinical Interest of Steroid Hormone Receptors in Breast Cancer. Recent Results in Cancer Research, vol 91. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82188-2_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82188-2_33

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