Many breast tumours are dependent upon oestrogen for their development and continued growth. Over the last 25 years hormone therapy has progressed from the irreversible destruction of endocrine glands to the use of drugs that reversibly suppress oestrogen synthesis or action. The inhibition of oestrogen synthesis is most readily achieved by inhibiting the final step in the pathway of oestrogen biosynthesis, the reaction which transforms androgens into oestrogens by creating an aromatic ring in the steroid molecule (hence the enzyme's trivial name, aromatase).

Whereas the first...

In Hormone Therapy in Breast and Prostate Cancer, many of today's leading researchers and clinicians describe the principles underlying targeted hormonal treatments, assess the actions of new and established agents, and illustrate the new applications of hormonal chemoprevention for breast cancer. Topics range from preclinical and clinical antiestrogens to the inhibition of estrogen synthesis and the effects of androgen withdrawal. A wide variety of proven and new agents are discussed-antiestrogens, including aromatase inhibitors (anastrozole, letrozole, and others), SERMs (tamoxifen,...