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Role of Exemestane in the Treatment of Estrogen-Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer: A Narrative Review of Recent Evidence

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Abstract

Introduction

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of cancer diagnosed among women worldwide with an estimated 2.3 million new cases every year. Almost two-thirds of all patients with BC have estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) tumors. In this review, the clinical evidence of exemestane in different treatment settings in ER+ BC is presented and summarized.

Search strategy

A search strategy with the keywords “breast cancer [MeSH Terms]” AND “exemestane [Title/Abstract]” was devised and a search was performed in PubMed.

Results

The efficacy of exemestane in different treatment settings has been established by numerous clinical studies. Exemestane is recommended as an adjuvant treatment in postmenopausal women previously treated with tamoxifen in trials comparing 5 years of tamoxifen with 2–3 years of tamoxifen combined with 2–3 years of exemestane, which proved that treatment with exemestane provided better survival outcomes. Similarly, exemestane could be considered as a safe treatment option for neoadjuvant treatment, prevention of chemotherapy, and treatment of advanced BC either alone or in combination with other targeted therapy drugs in both pre- and postmenopausal women.

Conclusion

Exemestane could be considered as a reasonable therapeutic option in the treatment of ER+ BC at any stage in pre- and postmenopausal women.

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Acknowledgements

Funding

This study and the Rapid Service Fee were funded by Pfizer Medical Affairs, Shanghai, China.

Medical Writing, Editorial, and Other Assistance

We thank the Pfizer Medical Affairs team along with Dr Amit Bhat, Dr Kaushik and Dr Akhtar from Indegene Pvt Ltd  for their valuable inputs and support; no financial compensation was given for their kind support.

Authorship

All named authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this article, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and have given their approval for this version to be published.

Authors’ Contributions

All authors have contributed equally to the study.

Disclosures

Yongmei Wang, Fanbo Jing, and Haibo Wang have no conflict of interest to declare.

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

This article is based on previously conducted studies and does not contain any new study with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Data Availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to data confidentiality but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Breast Disease Center, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, No. 59, Haier Road, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

    Yongmei Wang & Haibo Wang

  2. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, No. 59, Haier Road, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

    Fanbo Jing

Authors
  1. Yongmei Wang
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  2. Fanbo Jing
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  3. Haibo Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Haibo Wang.

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Wang, Y., Jing, F. & Wang, H. Role of Exemestane in the Treatment of Estrogen-Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer: A Narrative Review of Recent Evidence. Adv Ther 39, 862–891 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12325-021-01924-2

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