Urogenital disorders in women with adjuvant endocrine therapy after early breast cancer.

Abstract

To investigate the prevalence of urogenital symptoms and vaginal atrophy in postmenopausal breast cancer patients on adjuvant endocrine therapy. A population-based, cross-sectional study on postmenopausal breast cancer patients on adjuvant endocrine treatment and age-matched control subjects. Vaginal atrophy was assessed by gynecologic examination and atrophy-related symptoms by validated questionnaires. In all, 57.6% of aromatase inhibitor-treated and 32.4% of tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients rated at least 1 vaginal atrophy symptom as moderate/severe, which was significantly more common than in control subjects (P < .01). Aromatase inhibitor-treated patients more often had moderate or severe vaginal atrophy (P < .05), a more atrophic cytohormonal evaluation, and significantly higher vaginal pH (P < .05) than all control subjects, irrespective of hormonal use. Our findings indicate that the frequency of vaginal atrophy symptoms, particularly in aromatase inhibitor-treated women, might have been underestimated in previous clinical trials.