[Experience of high-dose toremifene treatment for postmenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer].

Toremifene (TOR), a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), showed efficacy equivalent to Tamoxifen (TAM) in terms of the objective response rate, stable disease, time to progression and overall survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). High-dose TOR is also effective for patients with TAM-resistant breast cancer. We tried to study retrospectively the efficacy and the safety of high-dose TOR treatment for patients with MBC in our hospital. Ten patients received TOR 120 mg daily. Most of the patients were treated with one or more endocrine agents before high-dose TOR. Objective response and clinical benefits were found in 3 patients (30%) and 7 patients (70%), respectively. Median time to progression and median overall survival were 9 months and 21.5 months, respectively. In our study,we found the efficacy for patients with hormone receptor negative, TAM resistance and aromatase inhibitor (AI)-resistance breast cancer. Adverse events induced by high-dose TOR treatment were tolerable. High-dose TOR may be one of the optional treatments for patients with MBC after TAM and AI treatment.