The results of the review were as follows:
The authors state that the clinical trial results for letrozole show a clear advantage in terms of time to progression and duration of disease.
No letrozole patients were reported to experience treatment-related serious adverse events compared to 12.2% of megestrol patients.
60.6% of letrozole patients had no progression after 3 months compared to 58.2% of megestrol patients.
17.8% of letrozole patients had no treatment failure after 1.5 years compared to 6.9% of megestrol patients.
The time to death was 25.3 months for letrozole patients compared to 21.5 months for megestrol patients.
For 55% of the patients on third-line hormone therapy, remission of disease, either an objective response or stabilisation, was achieved with a median duration of 7.3 months. The median survival time was 16 months.
83% of the patients receiving a first chemotherapy regimen achieved a remission, the median duration of which was 6.9 months and the median survival time 14.5 months.
61% of patients receiving a second chemotherapy regimen achieved a remission, the median duration of which was 4.8 months and the median survival time 9.1 months.