ABSTRACT
I. ABSTRACT Epidemiological and experimental evidence strongly supports a role for estrogens in the development and growth of breast tumors. As a result, efforts to decrease estrogen production are being explored as a strategy to reduce breast cancer risk. One method to accomplish this is by inhibiting the enzyme aromatase, which catalyzes the final rate-limiting step in estrogen biosynthesis. The use of biomarkers for breast cancer risk will be essential, not only for selecting women for inclusion in trials of putative chemoprevention agents but also for establishing their efficacy at intermediate time points. Some of the candidate biomarkers are discussed here, along with the rationale for utilizing aromatase inhibitors (AIs) as chemopreventives, and an overview of some of the ongoing chemoprevention trials utilizing AIs are reviewed.
