How Does Hormonal Therapy Prevent Recurrence?

— -- Question: How does hormonal therapy prevent breast cancer recurrence in non-invasive and invasive breast cancer?

Answer: The distinction between invasive and non-invasive breast cancer: invasive breast cancer is a cancer cell that has already demonstrated an ability to invade adjacent tissues, whereas non-invasive breast cancer -- sometimes known as D-C-I-S, or ductal carcinoma in situ -- is a pre-malignant lesion, and this is something that does not yet have the biologic potential to go elsewhere in the body. The use of endocrine therapy, or hormonal therapy, as a treatment for these situations has been proven, specifically with invasive breast cancer. If you give endocrine therapy, specifically drugs like tamoxifen, you can decrease the risk of the disease recurring; and it's also been clearly demonstrated, through clinical trials, that women who receive tamoxifen and have hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, the risk of surviving is significantly improved, and as I said earlier, the risk of recurring is significantly decreased. In patients who have non-invasive breast cancer, who have undergone the optimum local therapy, the administration of tamoxifen after the local therapy is complete further decreases the risk of recurrence. So the use of tamoxifen, as an example of endocrine or hormonal therapy, in patients with either early-stage invasive breast cancer or non-invasive breast cancer has clearly proven to be beneficial for patients.

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