Economic evaluation of aromatase inhibitors for the treatment of breast cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer affects 1 million women a year. Hormonal therapy has been a mainstay of treatment for women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer. The newer class of aromatase inhibitors has challenged the use of the previous standard agent, tamoxifen, in the treatment and prevention of breast cancer. This article will provide a thorough review of the literature on the newer generation aromatase inhibitors and examine their role in metastatic, adjuvant, neoadjuvant and prevention settings. An in-depth review of the cost-efficiency analyses is also performed. Recent studies on the newer, third-generation aromatase inhibitors have challenged the previous gold standard (tamoxifen) in the prevention and management of hormone-sensitive breast cancer in postmenopausal women. These studies have supported the use of aromatase inhibitors as first-line therapy in both early (adjuvant) and advanced breast cancer management. Whether aromatase inhibitors should replace tamoxifen in these settings is still a matter of debate. Augmenting these studies and providing additional information to the debate are pharmacoeconomic appraisals, which help to place a societal value on newer therapies as compared with the previously established therapy. This review discusses the pharmacology and efficacy of the newer aromatase inhibitors as it applies to their role in the metastatic, adjuvant, neoadjuvant and prevention settings. The pharmacoeconomic studies performed on these agents are also discussed.

• aromatase inhibitors
• breast cancer
• cost-efficacy analysis
• costs
• efficacy