Dr.
Dixon: There’s real concern amongst the biochemists that there
isn’t going to be synergy in the tumor at all, that you’ll
get the opposite effect. When you combine aminoglutethimide and
tamoxifen you seem to get almost a worse outcome than either agent
alone.
Dr.
Love: Clinically or biologically?
Dr.
Dixon: Biologically and clinically it was never shown that if you
added tamoxifen to aminoglutethimide you got any benefit from the
single agent alone. There were some small comparative series, and
until recently there’s been very little evidence that combining
endocrine agents is better than one alone. It’s only with the
work coming out now of Zoladex plus tamoxifen that appears better
than either alone. It’s only more recently that we have started
to see any synergy between endocrine agents. Previously, all the
studies had suggested that there wasn’t any synergy and there’s
no point in adding one endocrine agent to another.
Combined
endocrine therapy for breast cancer - New life for an old idea? Davidson, N. E. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 92(11):859-860,
2000 Jun 7. No abstract
