Both mammary adipose tissue and breast cancers have the ability to aromatize androgens into oestrogens. Such potential may maintain the growth of hormone-dependent tumours. It has therefore been important to determine the effects of new aromatase inhibitors such as formestane, exemestane, anastrozole and letrozole on oestrogen biosynthesis and concentrations of endogenous hormones within the breast. Studies based on in vitro incubations of breast cancer and cultures of mammary adipose tissue fibroblasts demonstrate that these drugs are highly effective inhibitors, with IC50 values ranging between 1 and 50 nM (although the relative efficacy varies between tissues and test systems). Despite this potential, in vitro incubations of breast tissues from patients treated with type II inhibitors such as aminoglutethimide and letrozole can display paradoxically high aromatase activity; this appears to be caused by the reversible nature of the inhibition, coupled with induction/stabilization of the aromatase enzyme. To assess in situ effects within the breast, postmenopausal women with large primary breast cancers have been treated neoadjuvantly with aromatase inhibitors using a protocol that included (i) breast biopsy before treatment, (ii) definitive surgery after 3 months of treatment and (iii) infusion of [3H]androstenedione and [14C]oestrone in the 18 h immediately before biopsy and surgery. With this study design, it has been shown that drugs such as letrozole profoundly inhibit in situ aromatase activity and reduce endogenous oestrogens within the breast.

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