Adjuvant ovarian suppression for resected breast cancer: 2017 critical assessment

Currently available data supporting adjuvant ovarian function suppression for resected breast cancer in premenopausal women in addition to standard chemotherapy and tamoxifen are not persuasive, even though an ASCO guideline supports them. Available information from the key trial, called “SOFT,” has only 5-year follow-up in a 15-year disease. It employs breast cancer events as an endpoint, rather than distant metastases, or better still, death from any cause. The small advantages reported to date may disappear when aromatase inhibitors are given after the occurrence of menopause in the control population. Caution should be exercised in recommending ovarian suppression in all but the highest-risk situations.