Estrogen Deprivation Therapy in Ovarian Cancer: An Opportunity

Correspondence - open access
 May 23, 2016 
 

To the Editor:

The recent case report by Lamm et al¹ about a patient with a granulosa cell tumor of the ovary describes a dramatic therapeutic response with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole (2.5 mg/day) after the failure of long-term pseudo-adjuvant therapy with tamoxifen (40 mg/day). This clinical observation can now be linked back to the recent report by Eeles et al² on the safety of adjuvant hormone therapy (AHT), that is, estrogen treatments to ameliorate severe menopausal symptoms. The report² documented the survival and disease outcomes in women with epithelial ovarian cancer. Our letter provides an opportunity to decipher a unifying mechanism for estrogen action that could be deployed for the benefit of patients with ovarian cancer...... 

REFERENCES

1. 1.↵
   1. Lamm W,
   2. Schiefer A,
   3. Nöbauer IM,
   4. et al.

   (2016) Aromatase inhibitor therapy as effective rescue in a patient with tamoxifen-refractory metastatic granulosa cell tumor of the ovary. J Clin Oncol 34:e31–e33.

   FREE Full Text
2. 2.↵
   1. Eeles RA,
   2. Morden JP,
   3. Gore M,
   4. et al.

   (2015) Adjuvant hormone therapy may improve survival in epithelial ovarian cancer: Results of the AHT randomized trial. J Clin Oncol 33:4138–4144.

   Abstract/FREE Full Text
3. 3.↵
   1. Jordan VC

   (2008) The 38th David A. Karnofsky lecture: The paradoxical actions of estrogen in breast cancer—Survival or death? J Clin Oncol 26:3073–3082.

   Abstract/FREE Full Text
4. 4.↵
   1. Jordan VC

   (2015) The new biology of estrogen-induced apoptosis applied to treat and prevent breast cancer. Endocr Relat Cancer 22:R1–R31.

   Abstract/FREE Full Text
5. 5.↵
   1. Farinola MA,
   2. Gown AM,
   3. Judson K,
   4. et al.

   (2007) Estrogen receptor alpha and progesterone receptor expression in ovarian adult granulosa cell tumors and Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors. Int J Gynecol Pathol 26:375–382.

   CrossRefMedlineGoogle Scholar
6. 6.↵
   1. Bizzi A,
   2. Codegoni AM,
   3. Landoni F,
   4. et al.

   (1988) Steroid receptors in epithelial ovarian carcinoma: Relation to clinical parameters and survival. Cancer Res 48:6222–6226.

   Abstract/FREE Full Text
7. 7.↵
   1. Holt JA,
   2. Jordan VC,
   3. Tate AC,
   4. et al.

   (1983) Binding of [³H] monohydroxytamoxifen in ovarian carcinoma. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 90:751–758.

   CrossRefMedlineGoogle Scholar
8. 8.↵
   1. Anderson GL,
   2. Chlebowski RT,
   3. Aragaki AK,
   4. et al.

   (2012) Conjugated equine estrogen and breast cancer incidence and mortality in postmenopausal women with hysterectomy: Extended follow-up of the Women’s Health Initiative randomized placebo-controlled trial. Lancet Oncol 13:476–486.

   CrossRefMedlineGoogle Scholar
9. 9.↵
   1. Sweeney EE,
   2. Fan P,
   3. Jordan VC

   (2014) Molecular modulation of estrogen-induced apoptosis by synthetic progestins in hormone replacement therapy: An insight into the women’s health initiative study. Cancer Res 74:7060–7068.

   Abstract/FREE Full Text
10. 10.↵
    1. Jeng MH,
    2. Parker CJ,
    3. Jordan VC

    (1992) Estrogenic potential of progestins in oral contraceptives to stimulate human breast cancer cell proliferation. Cancer Res 52:6539–6546.

    Abstract/FREE Full Text

Related Article

• CORRESPONDENCE: Reply to B. Abderrahman and V. C. Jordan

  • Wolfgang Lamm and
  • Wolfgang J. Köstler

  JCO JCO677542; published online on May 23, 2016;
  • [Full Text]
  • [PDF]