Objective: To investigate the prevalence of urogenital symptoms and vaginal atrophy in postmenopausal breast cancer patients on adjuvant endocrine therapy.
Study design: 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.
Results: 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.
Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the frequency of vaginal atrophy symptoms, particularly in aromatase inhibitor-treated women, might have been underestimated in previous clinical trials.
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