Objective To determine the investigation progression on exemestane in the treatment of breast cancer. Methods The literatures of recent years on the studies of exemestane were reviewed. Results Exemestane is an effective steroidal aromatase inactivator with superior tolerability, safety and efficacy in the adjuvant, neo-adjuvant and metastatic therapy of breast cancer. Conclusion With the progression of clinical trial with exmestane, exemestane will be regarded as an important drug in comprehensive therapy of breast cancer.
Objective To assess the effectiveness of exemestane in the treatment of postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Methods We searched The Cochrane Library, PubMed, CBMdisc, and CNKI to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Two reviewers extracted the data and evaluated the quality of included trials, respectively. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.0 software. Results A total of 12 RCTs involving 6 166 participants were included, and the results of meta-analyses showed that: (1) When used in neoadjuvant endocrine therapy after operation, exemestane was more effective in progression-free survival than tamoxifen; (2) When used in rescue therapy, exemestane was more effective in objective response than tamoxifen, but not more effective than letrozole or anastrozole; (3) When used in new neoadjuvant endocrine therapy before operation, exemestane was not more effective than letrozole, and there was too little research about it. Conclusions The current evidence shows that exemestane has certain short-term therapeutic effect, but its long-term therapeutic effect is unknown. More high-quality clinical trials are expected for further study.