Skip Navigation



Annals of Oncology Advance Access published online on March 2, 2009
Annals of Oncology, doi:10.1093/annonc/mdn693
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
20/4/615    most recent
mdn693v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Falandry, C.
Right arrow Articles by Dirix, L. Y.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Falandry, C.
Right arrow Articles by Dirix, L. Y.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Review

Role of combination therapy with aromatase and cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors in patients with metastatic breast cancer

C. Falandry1,*, P. A. Canney2, G. Freyer1 and L. Y. Dirix3

1 Department of Medical Oncology, Centre Hospitalier Lyon Sud, Pierre-Bénite, France
2 Beatson Oncology Centre, Western Infirmary, Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, UK
3 Medical Oncology Unit, Oncologisch Centrum Sint-Augustinus, Antwerp, Belgium

* Correspondence to: Dr C. Falandry, Université de Lyon and Hospices Civils de Lyon, EA 3738 and Department of Medical Oncology, Centre Hospitalier Lyon Sud, Pierre-Bénite, France. Tel: +33-478-864-318; Fax: +33-478-86-43-19; E-mail: claire.leger-falandry{at}ens-lyon.fr

Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are well established in the treatment of metastatic hormone-sensitive breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitors have demonstrated efficacy in reducing cancer risk in animal and human studies. In several preclinical studies, combination AI plus COX-2 inhibitor therapy has shown a synergistic antitumor effect. This review describes the utility of AI plus COX-2 inhibitor therapy and discusses the completed and ongoing clinical trials investigating treatment with the AI exemestane and the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib in the neo-adjuvant and metastatic breast cancer settings. In general, combination therapy had comparable or better efficacy compared with AI monotherapy using the end points of progression-free survival, overall response rate, clinical benefit rate, time to progression, and duration of clinical benefit. All therapies were well tolerated. There appeared to be a beneficial impact on serum lipid levels for patients receiving combination therapy in a neo-adjuvant trial despite the known cardiovascular toxicity risk associated with COX-2 inhibitors. In conclusion, AIs plus COX-2 inhibitors have shown promising efficacy and safety for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Careful monitoring during future trials will be necessary to accurately assess the risk–benefit ratio of combination therapy.

adjuvant, advanced breast cancer, aromatase inhibitor, celecoxib, exemestane

Received for publication May 23, 2008. Revision received October 1, 2008. Accepted for publication October 2, 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.