Are There Different Types of Hormonal Therapies for Breast Cancer?

— -- Question: Are there different types of hormonal therapies for breast cancer and what are my options if my cancer does not respond to the type prescribed?

Answer: Twenty years ago, we only had one option and that was tamoxifen. For use in pre- and post-menopausal women. That became the gold standard. This particular agent blocks the lock, it blocks the estrogen receptor, so that the estrogen can't get in there. Now tamoxifen is still available and it is the only anti-hormonal therapy that's routinely used for pre-menopausal women, so that's the standard of care.

For post-menopausal women, there is a new dimension. These are called the aromatase inhibitors, these can only be used in post-menopausal women. They block the synthesis, they block the process whereby estrogen is made in a woman's body fat, so that they lower the levels of estrogen. Post-menopausal women have options of using tamoxifen or a range of aromatase inhibitors so that now we have a menu of medicines today that we didn't have in the past.

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

Previous: Does tamoxifen become less effective over time?