History and Advancement of Anastrozole in the Treatment of Breast Cancer

Adjuvant hormonal therapy has helped to bring down the level of morality from breast cancer over the past 15 years. The 'gold standard' therapy has been considered to be tamoxifen, but at the ATAC trial in Rome it was compared with the new aromatase inhibitor anastrozole alone and in combination. This title indicates how results from various subprotocols in the ATAC trial show that anastrozole is threatening to knock tamoxifen from its 'top spot'. It is a useful and interesting edition for all clinicians involved in the management and treatment of the disease.

Contents

Section 1: Introduction
Chapter 1: Background, M. Baum
Chapter 2: Anastrozole: Clinical Pharmacology Overview, M.Dowsett and J. Blum

Section 2: Anastrozole in the neoadjuvant and advance breast cancer setting
Chapter 3: Neoadjuvant use of anastrozole, J.M.Dixon, W.Miller and T. Anderson
Chapter 4: Anastrozole as second-line treatment, W.Jonat and N.Robert
Chapter 5: Anastrozole as first-line treatment, G.Grana and J.Robertson

Section 3: Anastrozole in the early breast cancer setting - the ATAC trial
Chapter 6: Design and statistical considerations, J.Houghton, J.Cuzick and M.Baum
Chapter 7: Anastrozole as adjuvant therapy, M.Baum and A. Buzdar
Chapter 8: Overview of safety data, A.Howell and G. Locker

Section 4: ATAC subprotocols
Chapter 9: Pharmacokinetics subprotocol, M.Dowsett
Chapter 10: Quality of life subprotocol, L.Fallowfield and D.Cella
Chapter 11: Bone mineral density and bone marker subprotocol, R. Eastell and J. Adams
Chapter 12: Endometrial subprotocol, S.Duffy and T.Jackson
Chapter 13: Lipid data from the advanced breast cancer setting, J.Dewar

Section 5: From Clinical trial to routine practice
Chapter 14: TransATAC: from the test tube to the clinical setting, M.Dowsett and R.Sainsbury
Chapter 15: ATAC continuation: an overview, N.Williams
Chapter 16: Questions and answers: proceedings from the ATAC investigators' meetings

General Medicine

Aman Buzdar/Michael Baum