Arimidex/Fermara ?

[Lani]

the answer is not in yet

But at San Antonio this upcoming December there will be a lot of poster discussions about it:
Aromatase Inhibitors
101 Factors predicting survival after neoadjuvant therapy with aromatase inhibitors.
Murray E, Renshaw L, Macaskill EJ, Murray J, McCaig F, Young O, Cameron D, Kerr G, Thomas JS, Jack S, Dixon JM. Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.
102 The benefits of letrozole in postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer who have had five years of tamoxifen are independent of age.
Muss HB, Tu D, Ingle JN, Martino S, Robert NJ, Pater JL, Whelan T, Palmer MJ, Piccart MJ, Shepherd LE, Pritchard KI, He Z, Goss PE. University of Vermont Cancer Center, Burlington, VT; Queens Universtiy, Kingston, ON, Canada; Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Rochester, MN; University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; Fairfax Hospital, Fairfax, VA; McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada; Jules Bordet Cancer Institute, Brussels, Belgium; University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA.
103 Letrozole suppresses tissue and plasma estradiol, estrone and estrone sulfate more effectively compared to anastrozole.
Geisler J, Ekse D, Helle H, Eystein Lønning P. Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
104 A detailed analysis of the benefits of anastrozole over tamoxifen for venous thromboembolic events (VTEs) after 5 years' treatment.
Cuzick J, Wale C, on Behalf of the ATAC Trialists' Group. Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
105 Anastrozole and letrozole an investigation and comparison of quality of life, tolerability and morbidity.
Dixon JM, Renshaw L, Young O, Murray J, Macaskill EJ, McHugh M, Dixon OM, Folkerd E, McCaig F, Cameron D, Dowsett M, Langridge C, A'Hern R, Fallowfield LJ. Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; University of Sussex, United Kingdom; Royal Marsden Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
106 Letrozole-induced arthralgia is not consistent with an autoimmune disease resembling Sjögren's syndrome: preliminary results of a multicentric prospective trial.
Azria D, Lamy P-J, Belkacémi Y, Roux C, Gourgou S, Ozsahin M, Zaman K, Llacer Moscardo C, Lemanski C, Gutowski M, Boneterre J, Romieu G, Gligorov J. CRLC Val D'Aurelle-Paul Lamarque, Montpellier, France; CRLC Oscar Lambret and Lille II University, Lille, France; AP-HP CHU Cochin, Paris, France; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland; AP-HP CHU Tenon, Paris, France.
107 An integrated analysis of zoledronic acid (ZA) for prevention of aromatase inhibitor associated bone loss (AIBL) in postmenopausal women (PMW) with early breast cancer (BCa) receiving adjuvant letrozole (LET).
Brufsky A, Bundred N, Coleman R, Lambert-Falls R, Mena R, Dong M, Schenk N, Lacerna L, Perez E. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, East Hanover, NJ.
108 Mechanistic studies of aromatase inhibitor (AI) resistance.
Chen S, Wang X, Masri S, Phung S, Wu X, Yuan Y-C. Beckman Research Inst. of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA.
109 Trastuzumab improves the responsiveness of letrozole refractory human breast cancer cells to endocrine therapy.
Sabnis GJ, Brodie AM. University of Maryland, Baltimore; UM Greenebaum Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD.

I have already seen papers trying to compare efficacy and side-effects but
there doesn't seem to be a consensus yet.

[Jean]

Thanks Lani,
I am just making every effort to keep ahead of this.....and as always trying to make the best choice for today...it is not easy since we always seem to have additional questions.

Jean

[Becky]

Jean


There is some preliminary data (done on women with bone mets) that Femara may be slightly better than Arimidex or Aromosin but not statistically better. But this is for progression of metastatic disease and in the bone only. San Antonio may tell more or we might have to wait for the trial to be done. This trial compares the 3 drugs. My cousin (who is only highly ER/PR+) is on this trial and in the Arimidex arm. I am taking Arimidex because last year, this was the only drug whose trial directly compared it to tamoxifen. At that time, Femara's trial was using it after 5 yrs of Tamoxifen and Aromosin was switching to it after 2 yrs of Tamoxifen (Arimidex also had a trial like this as well).

Kind regards

Becky

[Jean]

Becky,

Please forgive me if this is a silly question - but here it goes.
Do you know if the Dr. were switching to Femara after 5 yrs.
because they believe it to be a milder form of AI? Do any Dr.
switch over to Arimidex? It sounds as if Arimidex might have or
is believed to have an edge that Femara does not. I know the jury
is still out - just curious about the difference between them and
of course I am curious as how many women start on the Femara
for treatment? Is Arimidex the major chosen treatment?

I will be eager for San Antonio to deliver some news on this.

Many thanks to you for your response!
All good wishes,
Jean