A trial looking at anastrozole with or without surgery for older women with breast cancer (ESTEeM)

This trial was comparing surgery and anastrozole (Arimidex) with anastrozole alone for breast cancer. It was recruiting women over 75 years old with breast cancer that was oestrogen receptor positive . The trial was supported by Cancer Research UK.

Doctors usually treated older women who have ER positive breast cancer with surgery and hormone therapy or with hormone therapy alone. But there was little research in older women to show who would benefit from having surgery as well as hormone therapy. Surgery has side effects and it is important that older women don’t have operations they don’t need.

Anastrozole (Arimidex) is a type of hormone therapy called an aromatase inhibitor. It is used as standard treatment for women with breast cancer who have been through the menopause.

In this trial, women had surgery and anastrozole or anastrozole alone. The aims of this study were to find out

• Which treatment was better at controlling the cancer
• More about the side effects and how this affected quality of life
• If other factors, such as age or other illnesses, could help doctors to decide which treatments are best for different women