Treatment of menopausal symptoms in patients with a history of breast cancer

Given the decrease in mortality through efficacious treatment of patients with breast cancer, improvements in the quality of life following oncologic therapy has become highly important. The quality of life may be reduced due to menopausal symptoms. A large number of clinical studies have analyzed the efficacy and oncologic safety of both estrogen-progestin-containing hormone therapy and tibolone but the results fail to demonstrate sufficient safety of these substances. Consequently, to date neither hormone therapy nor tibolone can be recommended for the treatment of menopausal symptoms in patients following breast cancer therapy. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify and establish alternative safe and efficacious agents.