Cognitive function in postmenopausal women receiving adjuvant letrozole or tamoxifen for breast cancer in the BIG 1-98 randomized trial.

Abstract

Cognitive function in postmenopausal women receiving letrozole or tamoxifen as adjuvant endocrine treatment was compared during the fifth year of treatment in a substudy of the BIG 1-98 trial. In BIG 1-98 patients were randomized to receive adjuvant (A) 5-years tamoxifen, (B) 5-years letrozole, (C) 2-years tamoxifen followed by 3-years letrozole, or (D) 2-years letrozole followed by 3-years tamoxifen. The primary comparison was the difference in composite score for patients taking letrozole (B+C; N=65) vs. tamoxifen (A+D; N=55). The patients taking letrozole had better overall cognitive function than those taking tamoxifen (difference in mean composite z-scores=0.28, P=0.04, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.54, Cohen's D=0.40 indicating small to moderate effect). In this substudy, breast cancer patients taking adjuvant letrozole during the fifth year of treatment had better cognitive function than those taking tamoxifen, suggesting aromatase inhibitors do not adversely impact cognition compared with tamoxifen.

• Authors: Kelly-Anne Phillips, Karin Ribi, Zhuoxin Sun, Alisa Stephens, Alastair Thompson, Vernon Harvey, Beat Thürlimann, Fatima Cardoso, Olivia Pagani, Alan S Coates, Aron Goldhirsch, Karen N Price, Richard D Gelber, Jürg Bernhard
• Journal: Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) (Breast) Vol. 19 Issue 5 Pg. 388-95 (Oct 2010) ISSN: 1532-3080 [Electronic] Netherlands
• PMID: 20385495 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Randomized Controlled Trial, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal
• Aromatase Inhibitors
• Nitriles
• Triazoles
• Tamoxifen
• Letrozole

Topics

• Aged
• Analysis of Variance
• Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal (administration & dosage, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Aromatase Inhibitors (administration & dosage, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Breast Neoplasms (drug therapy, psychology)
• Chemotherapy, Adjuvant
• Cognition (drug effects)
• Double-Blind Method
• Female
• Humans
• Letrozole
• Middle Aged
• Nitriles (administration & dosage, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Postmenopause
• Statistics, Nonparametric
• Tamoxifen (administration & dosage, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Triazoles (administration & dosage, pharmacology, therapeutic use)