The aim of the present study was to investigate the application status of tamoxifen as an adjuvant treatment for early-stage breast cancer. Data for patients with early breast cancer were collected from an information management system for breast cancer in a single hospital between 1989 and 2012. The inclusion criteria included no distant metastasis during diagnosis with breast cancer, and a diagnosis of estrogen and/or progesterone receptor-positive breast cancer, or an unclear hormonal receptor status with tamoxifen used as the preferred drug. A total of 2,738 patients were selected, with 99.4% female and 0.6% male patients. Within females, 75.7% were premenopausal when diagnosed with early breast cancer, 24.3% were postmenopausal, and the median age of menopause was 47 years. The percentage of tamoxifen preference in adjuvant therapy was 97.3% prior to 2000, which decreased to 60.4% in 2011. Tamoxifen preference among premenopausal patients reduced from 97.3% prior to 2000 to 89.5% in 2011, while in postmenopausal patients tamoxifen preference declined from 97.4% prior to 2000 to 22.7% in 2011. One-year duration of tamoxifen treatment accounted for 79.4% of cases, while five-year duration accounted for 24.7%. The rate of one-year disease-free survival (DFS) was 98.5% and of five-year DFS was 89.1%. Patients with early breast cancer had a one-year overall survival (OS) rate of 99.2% and a five-year OS rate of 95.6%. The gradually decreased usage and shortened duration of tamixofen treatment, as well as reduced DFS and OS rates were observed in a 'real world' clinical setting. Improved treatment compliance in patients is recommended.
Keywords: application status; early-stage breast cancer; hormonal receptor-positive; tamoxifen.