High-dose tamoxifen in high-hormone-receptor-expressing advanced breast cancer patients: a phase II pilot study

Background: Tumor progression following endocrine therapy is considered to indicate resistance to endocrine drugs due to a variety of mechanisms. An insufficient dose of endocrine drugs is one of the causes for treatment failure in some patients with high hormone-receptor (HR)-expressing advanced breast cancer. This study aimed to explore the efficacy of high-dose tamoxifen (TAM) treatment in patients with advanced breast cancer with highly expressed HR. Materials & methods: This was a single-arm, phase II pilot study that enrolled patients with advanced breast cancer with high HR expression (estrogen receptor ⩾60% and/or progesterone receptor ⩾60%) following routine endocrine therapy. All enrolled patients received a high-dose of TAM (100 mg/day) until disease progression. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). The secondary endpoints included objective response rate (ORR), clinical benefit rate (CBR), overall survival (OS), and safety. Exploratory endpoints included the predictive value of 16α-18F-17β-fluoroestradiol quantitative positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FES PET/CT) for treatment efficacy. Results: A total of 30 patients were enrolled between September 2017 and February 2019. The median PFS was 6 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 4.9–7.1] and the median OS was 15.6 months (95% CI 8.3–22.9). Five patients experienced a partial response (PR) and none experienced a complete response (CR), with an ORR of 16.7% and CBR of 33.3%. No severe adverse events were observed. Lesions with 18F-FES maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) ⩾4 had a significantly longer PFS [median 9.2 months, (95% CI 6.9–11.6)] compared with lesions with a 18F-FES SUVmax