Hysteroscopic follow-up in tamoxifen treatment for breast cancer.

ABSTRACT

In the postmenopausal women endocrinotherapy proves to be as useful as the cytotoxic treatment in breast cancer therapy, regarding the percentage and duration of response, both in prophylactic and palliative therapy, with the advantage of milder side-effects and a better quality of life. This study was carried out in order to evaluate the Tamoxifen weak estrogenic activity, which could appear during long-term therapies, determining endometrial morphological modifications. Twenty-one postmenopausal women suffering from breast cancer underwent hysteroscopy with target biopsy or curettage at the same time with mastectomy and afterwards during additional Tamoxifen treatment at 12 and 24 months. Our results confirm that this simple, outpatient endoscopic investigation should be provided as a routine in the follow-up of oncologic patients during hormonotherapy.