Primary Hormone Therapy in Elderly Women with Hormone-Sensitive Locoregional Breast Cancer: Endocrine Therapy Alone Is a Reasonable Alternative in Selected Patients

Background: Treatment with aromatase inhibitors (AIs) followed by surgery is often recommended for women with locoregional hormone-sensitive breast cancer. However, no study has compared the efficacy of AIs alone versus AIs followed by surgery. Methods: 33 postmenopausal breast cancer patients were treated with primary hormone therapy. Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor type 2 receptor (HER2) expression levels were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. After hormone therapy, eligible patients underwent surgery, and those who were not candidates for surgery continued on hormone therapy. We retrospectively analyzed time to progression, overall survival, response, and impact of surgery on outcome. Results: All patients were ER+. HER2 was successfully analyzed in 30 patients, all of whom were HER2-. The median time to progression was 94 months, and the median overall survival was not reached, while the mean overall survival was 123 months. The overall response rate was 63.6%, with 9.1% complete responses. No significant differences in time to progression or survival were observed between patients who underwent surgery and those who did not. Conclusions: Primary hormone therapy with AIs is effective in elderly breast cancer patients with high levels of hormone receptors and may provide a feasible and tolerable alternative to surgery in selected hormone-sensitive breast cancer patients.