Primary hormone treatment in postmenopausal women with breast cancer.

Clinical benefits of hormone therapy in patients with hormone-sensitive tumors have been clearly established. Postmenopausal women with positive hormone receptors represent the largest group of patients in whom early stage breast cancer is diagnosed. Third-generation aromatase inhibitors (letrozole, anastrozole, and exemestane) are active and well tolerated in postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive metastasic or locally advanced breast cancer as first or second line treatment. These are also valuable agents in the neoadjuvant setting in postmenopausal women, and even as single treatment in localized breast tumors in women not amenable to surgery.