Endocrine treatment is the first-line therapy in hormone-sensitive metastatic breast cancer while chemotherapy is the first option in tumors refractory to endocrine therapy and in hormone-negative disease. Optimal duration, efficacy and safety of a maintenance endocrine therapy or chemotherapy after an induction treatment are still a matter of debate. We performed a literature review to identify studies regarding maintenance hormonal and chemotherapy treatments in metastatic breast cancer. We analyzed data relating to efficacy (improvement of progression-free survival and overall survival) and safety (symptoms relief and quality of life [QoL]). Maintenance endocrine therapy could prolong progression-free survival with a better control of symptoms and improving QoL. Maintenance chemotherapy prolong the response to a previous treatment, worsening the QoL, except for metronomic capecitabine.
Keywords: chemotherapy; endocrine treatment; maintenance therapy; metastatic breast cancer.