Loading
Pills that block or remove oestrogen signalling, the mainstay of treatment for hormone-driven breast cancer for 50 years.
Tamoxifen (SERM), aromatase inhibitors (letrozole, anastrozole, exemestane), fulvestrant (injectable SERD), oral SERDs (elacestrant, imlunestrant approved 2025, camizestrant), and the PROTAC vepdegestrant (2026). Ovarian function suppression (goserelin) for premenopausal women. Five to ten years of adjuvant therapy halves recurrence; adherence is a major real-world problem.
Compete for ER (SERM), deplete oestrogen (AI), or degrade ER (SERD, PROTAC).
Abarelix was the first GnRH antagonist for prostate cancer, approved in the United States in 2003 for men who could not take agonists, but allergic reactions restricted it and it was withdrawn from the US market in 2005; it remained available in Germany.
Aminoglutethimide produced a medical adrenalectomy for advanced breast and prostate cancer in the 1970s and 1980s, the ancestor of today's aromatase inhibitors, and was withdrawn once selective drugs arrived.
Anastrozole is a daily tablet that stops the body making oestrogen after the menopause. It treats and prevents hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer and is an alternative to tamoxifen after surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ.
The only test designed to tell a woman who has finished five years of hormone therapy whether another five years is worth the side effects.
Buserelin is one of the original GnRH agonists, approved in Europe and Canada in the 1980s for advanced prostate cancer and also used in endometriosis and fertility treatment; it is not sold in the United States.
CAM2029 is Camurus's monthly octreotide depot that patients can inject themselves, positive in the phase 3 SORENTO trial for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours against the standard depot formulations.
Camizestrant is an oral oestrogen-receptor degrader approved in September 2026 for a new kind of decision: switching treatment when a blood test shows resistance developing, before the cancer visibly grows.
Diethylstilbestrol was the first hormonal treatment for prostate cancer, standard from the 1940s, and was also given for breast cancer, before its cardiovascular harms and the cancers it caused in the daughters of women who took it in pregnancy ended its use.
Elacestrant was the first oral oestrogen-receptor degrader (2023), for ESR1-mutant breast cancer detected by blood test.
Exemestane is a steroidal aromatase inhibitor, the partner of everolimus and the agent tested with ovarian suppression in young women.
Fluoxymesterone is an oral male hormone approved in 1956 and once used to palliate advanced breast cancer in women, an approach abandoned when better tolerated antioestrogens and aromatase inhibitors arrived.
Formestane, launched in Europe in 1993, was the first selective aromatase inhibitor for advanced breast cancer, given by injection every two weeks; oral exemestane and the non-steroidal inhibitors made it redundant within a few years.
Fulvestrant is a monthly intramuscular injection that degrades the oestrogen receptor rather than blocking it, the endocrine backbone paired with CDK4/6, PI3K and AKT inhibitors once aromatase inhibitors fail. Slow uptake and incomplete receptor degradation drove the search for oral degraders.
Giredestrant is Roche's oral SERD: it failed to beat an aromatase inhibitor in first-line metastatic disease but succeeded after surgery and after CDK4/6 failure.
Monthly or 3-monthly injections that switch off the ovaries, letting premenopausal women use aromatase inhibitors and lowering recurrence in higher-risk cases.
Histrelin is a GnRH agonist delivered by a small implant under the skin of the arm that lasts a whole year, approved in the United States as Vantas for palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer and as Supprelin for early puberty in children.
Imlunestrant is Lilly's oral oestrogen-receptor degrader, approved in 2025 for ESR1-mutant breast cancer and shown to work with abemaciclib regardless of mutation.
Daily pills that stop the body making oestrogen after menopause, the backbone of hormone therapy for most breast cancers.
Leuprolide is the injectable that shuts off testosterone production, the foundation of hormone therapy for prostate cancer since the 1980s; it is also used for ovarian suppression in premenopausal breast cancer.
Megestrol acetate is a hormone tablet used to ease advanced breast and womb cancer, and as a liquid to improve appetite and weight in people with cancer or AIDS-related wasting.
Progesterone-like hormones that can reverse early endometrial cancer in women who want to keep their uterus, and control advanced hormone-sensitive disease.
Raloxifene (Evista) is an osteoporosis tablet that also lowers the chance of developing invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women at higher risk, with fewer womb-cancer problems than tamoxifen.
Rezvilutamide is Hengrui's androgen receptor blocker, approved in China in 2022 for high-volume metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer on the CHART trial, where it improved survival over bicalutamide.
The original targeted cancer drug (1977): a pill that blocks oestrogen's effect on breast cancer and halves recurrence, still essential for premenopausal women.
Toremifene (Fareston) is a tamoxifen-like tablet for postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer that has spread.
Triptorelin (Trelstar) is a one-, three- or six-monthly injection that switches off testosterone production for men with advanced prostate cancer.
Vepdegestrant is the first PROTAC ever approved (2026): a pill that tags the oestrogen receptor for destruction, for breast cancers with ESR1 mutations.
Ribociclib is a second adjuvant CDK4/6 option, and the only one with data in node-negative stage II disease. Roughly 3 in 100 patients avoid a relapse or death at three years, so the decision depends heavily on individual risk, tolerance of a three-year oral drug, and cost. Whether the benefit persists after treatment ends, as it did with abemaciclib, needs longer follow-up.
Women with hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that has spread to lymph nodes and has other high-risk features can now be offered two years of abemaciclib alongside their hormone therapy, with a durable reduction in relapse. It does not apply to node-negative or low-risk disease, and the diarrhoea and cost are real trade-offs to discuss.
Men diagnosed with prostate cancer that has already spread, or that is locally advanced and high risk, should start abiraterone (or another androgen-receptor pathway inhibitor) at the same time as testosterone suppression rather than waiting for resistance. This roughly halves the risk of death over several years. The same platform later showed that docetaxel chemotherapy and, in high-volume metastatic disease, triple therapy also help, and that abiraterone benefits men with high-risk disease treated with radiotherapy.
For women at raised risk, a 5-year course of tamoxifen offers long-lasting protection against the commonest kind of breast cancer. Uptake is low because of side effects and fear of rare serious harms; low-dose tamoxifen (TAM-01) is now being tested to improve the balance. It has not been shown to save lives.
The trial did not change practice, but it established the idea that the days around surgery are a window in which cheap interventions might reduce metastasis, a line the same group pursued to a positive result with peritumoral lidocaine in 2023. It is a reminder that subgroup findings need confirmation, which is still awaited.
Query for this technology: (TITLE:"endocrine therapy" OR ABSTRACT:"endocrine therapy" OR TITLE:"aromatase inhibitor" OR ABSTRACT:"aromatase inhibitor" OR TITLE:"oral SERD" OR ABSTRACT:"oral SERD") AND breast. Results are unfiltered search hits about Endocrine therapy (SERMs, AIs, SERDs), not a curated reading list.
Shares Evaluation of Lasofoxifene Combined With Abemaciclib Compared With Fulvestrant Combined With Abemaciclib in Locally Advanced or Metastatic ER+/HER2- Breast Cancer With an ESR1 Mutation, A Study of Abemaciclib (LY2835219) Plus Tamoxifen or Abemaciclib Alone in Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer, A Study of Abemaciclib (LY2835219) in Participants With Breast Cancer, A Study to Evaluate the Effect of GDC-4198 Alone and in Combination With Giredestrant Versus Abemaciclib and Giredestrant in Participants With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Estrogen Receptor-Positive (ER+), Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-Negative (HER2-) Breast Cancer.
Shares persevERA, A Comparative Study of AZD9833 Plus Palbociclib Versus Anastrozole Plus Palbociclib in Patients With ER-Positive HER2 Negative Breast Cancer Who Have Not Received Any Systemic Treatment for Advanced Disease, Vepdegestrant (ARV-471/PF-07850327) + Palbociclib vs Letrozole + Palbociclib in ER(+)/HER2(-) Advanced Breast Cancer, CDK4/6 inhibitor + endocrine therapy.
Shares A Phase IIIb Study to Evaluate Camizestrant Plus Ribociclib in ER-positive, HER2-negative Advanced Breast Cancer, TACTIVE-U: A Study to Learn About the Study Medicine (Vepdegestrant) When Given With Other Medicines in People With Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancer (Sub-Study B), CDK4/6 inhibitor + endocrine therapy, A Study to Evaluate Efficacy and Safety of Giredestrant Compared With Fulvestrant (Plus a CDK4/6 Inhibitor), in Participants With ER-Positive, HER2-Negative Advanced Breast Cancer Resistant to Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy (pionERA Breast Cancer).
Shares A Study to Evaluate the Effect of GDC-4198 Alone and in Combination With Giredestrant Versus Abemaciclib and Giredestrant in Participants With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Estrogen Receptor-Positive (ER+), Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-Negative (HER2-) Breast Cancer, CAMBRIA-1 & CAMBRIA-2, A Study Evaluating the Efficacy and Safety of Inavolisib Plus Fulvestrant Compared With Alpelisib Plus Fulvestrant in Participants With HR-Positive, HER2-Negative, PIK3CA Mutated, Locally Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancer Post CDK4/6i and Endocrine Combination Therapy, evERA.
Shares A Phase IIIB Study to Evaluate the Use of Capivasertib in Combination With Fulvestrant in Patients With Advanced Breast Cancer Who Have Relapsed/Progressed on ET and CDK4/6 Inhibitor Reflecting Real World Clinical Practice in Spain, Capivasertib+Fulvestrant asTreatment for Locally Advanced(Inoperable) or Metastatic HR+/HER2- Breast Cancer in Chinese Patients, To Study the Effect of Inavolisib in Combination With Fulvestrant in Participants With Breast Cancer, Study Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Treatment With Alpelisib Plus Fulvestrant in Japanese Men and Postmenopausal Women With Advanced Breast Cancer.
Shares A Study Evaluating Adherence, Tolerability, and Patient Reported Outcomes of Giredestrant in Participants With ER+/HER2- Early Breast Cancer Who Are Intolerant to Adjuvant Aromatase Inhibitor Therapy (novERA Breast Cancer), A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Giredestrant in Combination With Phesgo (Pertuzumab, Trastuzumab, and Hyaluronidase-zzxf) Versus Phesgo in Participants With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancer (heredERA Breast Cancer), A Study Evaluating the Efficacy and Safety of Giredestrant Compared With Physician's Choice of Endocrine Monotherapy in Participants With Previously Treated Estrogen Receptor-Positive, HER2-Negative Locally Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancer (acelERA Breast Cancer), A Study to Evaluate the Effect of GDC-4198 Alone and in Combination With Giredestrant Versus Abemaciclib and Giredestrant in Participants With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Estrogen Receptor-Positive (ER+), Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-Negative (HER2-) Breast Cancer.
Shares Study Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Treatment With Alpelisib Plus Fulvestrant in Japanese Men and Postmenopausal Women With Advanced Breast Cancer, Study Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Treatment With Alpelisib Plus Fulvestrant Versus Placebo Plus Fulvestrant in Chinese Men and Postmenopausal Women With Advanced Breast Cancer, A Study Evaluating the Efficacy and Safety of Inavolisib Plus Fulvestrant Compared With Alpelisib Plus Fulvestrant in Participants With HR-Positive, HER2-Negative, PIK3CA Mutated, Locally Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancer Post CDK4/6i and Endocrine Combination Therapy, Gedatolisib Plus Fulvestrant With or Without Palbociclib vs Standard-of-Care for the Treatment of Patients With Advanced or Metastatic HR+/HER2- Breast Cancer (VIKTORIA-1).
Shares A Study of Abemaciclib (LY2835219) Plus Tamoxifen or Abemaciclib Alone in Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer, A Study of Imlunestrant (LY3484356) in Premenopausal Women With Estrogen Receptor-Positive (ER+) Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Negative (HER2-) Early Breast Cancer, A Study of Imlunestrant Versus Standard Endocrine Therapy in Participants With Early Breast Cancer, A Study of Abemaciclib (LY2835219) in Participants With Breast Cancer.