Dr. Mamounas on Patient Selection for Endocrine Therapy

Eleftherios P. Mamounas, MD, surgical oncologist, UF Health Cancer Center - Orlando Health, discusses which patients with breast cancer are most likely to benefit from endocrine therapy.

In the frontline setting, patients are selected by the expressing estrogen receptor, Mamounas says. Patients who are estrogen receptor (ER)-positive are more likely to benefit from endocrine therapy versus those who are ER-negative. However, it is unclear which patients will benefit from delayed endocrine therapy. Several clinical trials are examining this and researchers are awaiting the results.

Another frequently used factor for determining treatment is tumor size and node status, Mamounas explains. For example, patients with positive nodes upfront, even after five years, have a significantly higher chance of benefitting from endocrine therapy than those with negative nodes. For patients with node-negative disease, oncologists can sub-stratify them with genomic tests.