Review of Canadian trials of adjuvant endocrine therapy for breast cancer.

Adjuvant ovarian ablation delays recurrence and prolongs survival in premenopausal patients with breast cancer, but the differences fall short of statistical significance; this effect is enhanced to statistically significant differences by low-dose prednisone. Adjuvant tamoxifen has delayed recurrence in post-menopausal patients with steroid receptor-positive tumors and positive axillary nodes, but, to date, has not affected survival.