[Adjuvant endocrine therapy in premenopausal breast cancer: a initial dedicated counseling: can it be useful for...

Adjuvant endocrine therapy is highly effective and appropriate for all breast cancer patients with hormone receptor positive tumors, pre and post menopausal women. It's an oral daily pill for many years, after primary treatment. Although this medication dramatically reduces reccurrence rates and risk of death, many breast cancer survivors either fail to take pills with prescribed frequency (adherence) or discontinue therapy (persistence) or even never begin to take it. It's difficult to know exactly the prevalence of adherence and persistence but women age younger than 40 years had the highest risk of discontinuation. Medical literature of the last 15 years in this area has been carefully reviewed considering initiation treatment background, specificity of premenopausal young women population, healthcare provider and patient communication and respective views. It's highlighted that dedicated care, at first and after in follow up, is an essential part for better adherence. Guidelines processing are more and more complicated, expert medical assesment is required, shared decision must be provide. Patients need enhanced knowledge about mode of action, benefits but also potential side effects, and optimized patient provider relationship for empathy and better comprehension. Providers must believe in treatment relevance and convey their convictions.