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AzTrials

Breast CancerPhase 3NCT00032136

Exemestane Compared With Tamoxifen in Treating Postmenopausal Women With Breast Cancer

A Phase 3 study testing exemestane, tamoxifen citrate and adjuvant therapy in people with Breast Cancer, run by Cancer Research Campaign Clinical Trials Centre at 1 site in United Kingdom.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

RATIONALE: Estrogen can stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells. Hormone therapy using exemestane may fight breast cancer by reducing the production of estrogen. It is not yet known if exemestane is more effective than tamoxifen in preventing the recurrence of breast cancer. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Any age, women only
Conditions the study is for
Breast Cancer
What is being tested?
exemestane, tamoxifen citrate and adjuvant therapy
Type of treatment
Surgery or procedure
How many people
4,400 participants
Where
1 siteUnited Kingdom
Study dates
Dec 2001to Apr 2009
Phase
Phase 3
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages Any age
  • Women only
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Child, Adult, Older adult

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Histologically or cytologically confirmed early adenocarcinoma of the breast
  • Completely excised by surgery with curative intent (R0)
  • Any N OR
  • Any primary tumor greater than 3 cm OR
  • Any primary tumor grade III and greater than 1 cm
  • M0
  • No positive supraclavicular nodes
  • Hormone receptor status:
  • Estrogen and/or progesterone receptor positive

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

  • Any age
  • See Menopausal status

Sex:

  • Female

Menopausal status:

  • Postmenopausal
  • Any age with bilateral oophorectomy or amenorrhea for at least 5 years OR
  • Age 50 or over:
  • Natural amenorrhea for at least 1 year OR
  • Chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea for at least 2 years OR
  • Radiation-induced amenorrhea (at least 3 months since prior radiotherapy) OR
  • Under age 50:
  • If amenorrheic for less than 5 years (any cause) or prior hysterectomy without bilateral surgical oophorectomy, follicle-stimulating hormone must be assayed to confirm postmenopausal status

Performance status:

  • ECOG 0-2

Life expectancy:

  • Not specified

Hematopoietic:

  • Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm3
  • WBC greater than 3,000/mm3

Hepatic:

  • SGOT or SGPT less than 2.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)

Renal:

  • Creatinine less than 1.5 times ULN

Cardiovascular:

  • No uncontrolled cardiac disease
  • No unstable angina
  • No congestive heart failure or arrhythmia requiring medical therapy
  • No myocardial infarction within the past 3 months

Other:

  • No severe osteoporosis
  • No other malignancies within the past 5 years except adequately treated carcinoma in situ of the cervix or basal cell skin cancer
  • No other serious concurrent disease that would preclude study
  • No psychiatric disorders that would preclude study

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

  • Not specified

Chemotherapy:

  • No prior neoadjuvant chemotherapy
  • No more than 10 weeks since completion of prior adjuvant chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

  • No prior adjuvant hormonal therapy for breast cancer
  • No prior neoadjuvant hormonal therapy (prior to surgery) for duration of more than 4 weeks
  • At least 4 weeks since prior hormone replacement therapy

Radiotherapy:

  • Not specified

Surgery:

  • See Disease Characteristics
  • No more than 10 weeks since completion of curative surgery

Other:

  • No other concurrent investigational agents or participation in another clinical study (except adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy studies)
  • Concurrent bisphosphonates allowed

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United Kingdom1 site

  • City Hospital - Birmingham

    Birmingham, England, B18 7QH

Other trials in United Kingdom

About this study

Official title: An Open Label, Randomized Multicenter Comparative Trial Of 5 Years Adjuvant Exemestane Treatment Versus 5 Years Adjuvant Tamoxifen Treatment In Postmenopausal Women With Early Breast Cancer

RATIONALE: Estrogen can stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells. Hormone therapy using exemestane may fight breast cancer by reducing the production of estrogen. It is not yet known if exemestane is more effective than tamoxifen in preventing the recurrence of breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of exemestane with that of tamoxifen in treating postmenopausal women who have undergone surgery to remove early-stage breast cancer.

Read the detailed description

OBJECTIVES:

  • Compare the efficacy and tolerability of adjuvant exemestane versus adjuvant tamoxifen in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer.
  • Compare the relapse-free survival and overall survival of patients treated with these drugs.
  • Compare the incidence of contralateral breast cancer in patients treated with these drugs.
  • Compare the safety and long-term tolerability of these drugs in these patients.
  • Compare the quality of life of patients treated with these drugs.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, open-label, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to estrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PgR) status (ER positive vs ER negative/PgR positive vs ER positive/PgR unknown), prior chemotherapy (none vs taxane-based vs anthracycline-based vs other), and nodal status (negative vs 1-3 nodes positive vs 4 or more nodes positive). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

  • Arm I: Patients receive oral tamoxifen once daily
  • Arm II: Patients receive oral exemestane once daily. Treatment in both arms continues for a minimum of 5 years in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Quality of life is assessed at baseline and at months 3 and 12 during study.

Patients are followed at least annually.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 4,400 patients (2,200 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study.

Conditions
Breast Cancer
Being tested
exemestane, tamoxifen citrate, adjuvant therapy
Keywords
stage I breast cancer, stage II breast cancer
Medical subject headings
Breast Neoplasms

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Relapse-free survival

Secondary outcomes (4)

  1. Overall survival

  2. Incidence of second breast cancer in contralateral breast

  3. Safety and long term tolerability

  4. Quality of life

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted27 Jan 2003 (estimated)
  2. Study startDec 2001
  3. Study completionApr 2009

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomised
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
4,400 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT00032136
Sponsor's protocol ID
CRC-TU-TEAM
Other IDs
CDR0000069260, EU-20149, ISRCTN75225940
Status last verified
Mar 2007
First submitted
8 Mar 2002
Last updated
2 Aug 2013
Results posted
No

Publications

  • Hadji P, Asmar L, van Nes JG, Menschik T, Hasenburg A, Kuck J, Nortier JW, van de Velde CJ, Jones SE, Ziller M. The effect of exemestane and tamoxifen on bone health within the Tamoxifen Exemestane Adjuvant Multinational (TEAM) trial: a meta-analysis of the US, German, Netherlands, and Belgium sub-studies. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2011 Jun;137(6):1015-25. doi: 10.1007/s00432-010-0964-y. Epub 2010 Dec 18.

    PubMed 21170551

  • van de Velde CJ, Rea D, Seynaeve C, Putter H, Hasenburg A, Vannetzel JM, Paridaens R, Markopoulos C, Hozumi Y, Hille ET, Kieback DG, Asmar L, Smeets J, Nortier JW, Hadji P, Bartlett JM, Jones SE. Adjuvant tamoxifen and exemestane in early breast cancer (TEAM): a randomised phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2011 Jan 22;377(9762):321-31. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62312-4.

    PubMed 21247627

  • Kieback DG, Harbeck N, Bauer W, Hadji P, Weyer G, Menschik T, Hasenburg A. Endometrial effects of exemestane compared to tamoxifen within the Tamoxifen Exemestane Adjuvant Multicenter (TEAM) trial: results of a prospective gynecological ultrasound substudy. Gynecol Oncol. 2010 Dec;119(3):500-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2010.08.006. Epub 2010 Sep 15.

    PubMed 20832103

  • Hadji P, Ziller M, Kieback DG, Dornoff W, Tessen HW, Menschik T, Kuck J, Melchert F, Hasenburg A. Effects of exemestane and tamoxifen on bone health within the Tamoxifen Exemestane Adjuvant Multicentre (TEAM) trial: results of a German, 12-month, prospective, randomised substudy. Ann Oncol. 2009 Jul;20(7):1203-9. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdn762. Epub 2009 Feb 13.

    PubMed 19218306

  • Hadji P, Ziller M, Kieback DG, Menschik T, Kalder M, Kuck J, Hasenburg A. The effect of exemestane or tamoxifen on markers of bone turnover: results of a German sub-study of the Tamoxifen Exemestane Adjuvant Multicentre (TEAM) trial. Breast. 2009 Jun;18(3):159-64. doi: 10.1016/j.breast.2009.03.003. Epub 2009 Apr 11.

    PubMed 19364653

  • Pilgram L, Yang K, Beltran-Bless AA, Pond GR, Vandermeer L, Hilton J, Savard MF, LeBlanc A, Shepherd L, Chen B, Bartlett JM, Taylor KJ, Bayani J, Barker S, Spears M, van der Velde CJ, Meershoek-Klein Kranenbarg E, Dirix L, Mallon E, Hasenburg A, Markopoulos C, Juwara L, Dankar FK, Clemons M, El Emam K. Transfer Learning and Machine Learning for Training Five-Year Survival Prognostic Models in Early Breast Cancer: Development and Validation Study. J Med Internet Res. 2026 Apr 14;28:e88665. doi: 10.2196/88665.

    PubMed 41980703

  • Leblanc A, Beltran-Bless AA, Pond GR, El Emam K, Juwara L, Clemons L, Bayani J, Pilgram L, Pharoah P, Mallon E, Taylor KJ, Markopoulos C, Dirix L, Vandermeer L, Hilton J, Savard MF, Bartlett JMS, Clemons M. Prognostic and predictive performance of PREDICT 2.1, PREDICT v3, and RSClin in node-negative early breast cancer: a TEAM pathology substudy. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2026 Feb 5;215(3):74. doi: 10.1007/s10549-026-07909-5.

    PubMed 41642493

  • Beltran-Bless AA, Pond GR, Bayani J, Barker SL, Spears M, Mallon E, Taylor KJ, Hasenburg A, Markopoulos C, Dirix L, Meershoek-Klein Kranenbarg E, van de Velde CJH, Rea DW, Vandermeer L, Hilton J, Bartlett JMS, Clemons M. Does RSClin provide additional information over classic clinico-pathologic scores (PREDICT 2.1, INFLUENCE 2.0, CTS5)? Breast. 2025 Oct;83:104528. doi: 10.1016/j.breast.2025.104528. Epub 2025 Jul 4.

    PubMed 40633461

  • Bayani J, Kornaga EN, Crozier C, Jang GH, Bathurst L, Kalatskaya I, Trinh QM, Yao CQ, Livingstone J, Boutros PC, Spears M, McPherson JD, Stein LD, Rea D, Bartlett JMS. Identification of Distinct Prognostic Groups: Implications for Patient Selection to Targeted Therapies Among Anti-Endocrine Therapy-Resistant Early Breast Cancers. JCO Precis Oncol. 2019 Dec;3:1-13. doi: 10.1200/PO.18.00373.

    PubMed 35100692

  • Derks MGM, Bastiaannet E, van de Water W, de Glas NA, Seynaeve C, Putter H, Nortier JWR, Rea D, Hasenburg A, Markopoulos C, Dirix LY, Portielje JEA, van de Velde CJH, Liefers GJ. Impact of age on breast cancer mortality and competing causes of death at 10 years follow-up in the adjuvant TEAM trial. Eur J Cancer. 2018 Aug;99:1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2018.04.009. Epub 2018 Jun 6.

    PubMed 29885375

  • Derks MGM, Blok EJ, Seynaeve C, Nortier JWR, Kranenbarg EM, Liefers GJ, Putter H, Kroep JR, Rea D, Hasenburg A, Markopoulos C, Paridaens R, Smeets JBE, Dirix LY, van de Velde CJH. Adjuvant tamoxifen and exemestane in women with postmenopausal early breast cancer (TEAM): 10-year follow-up of a multicentre, open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2017 Sep;18(9):1211-1220. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30419-9. Epub 2017 Jul 18.

    PubMed 28732650

  • Bartlett JM, Brookes CL, Piper T, van de Velde CJ, Stocken D, Lyttle N, Hasenburg A, Quintayo MA, Kieback DG, Putter H, Markopoulos C, Kranenbarg EM, Mallon EA, Dirix LY, Seynaeve C, Rea DW. Do type 1 receptor tyrosine kinases inform treatment choice? A prospectively planned analysis of the TEAM trial. Br J Cancer. 2013 Oct 29;109(9):2453-61. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2013.609. Epub 2013 Oct 3.

    PubMed 24091623

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A Phase 3 study testing exemestane, tamoxifen citrate and adjuvant therapy in people with Breast Cancer, run by Cancer Research Campaign Clinical Trials Centre at 1 site in United Kingdom.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 2 Aug 2013. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United Kingdom. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

What does this phase mean?

Phase 3 studies compare the treatment with the current standard treatment or a placebo in a large group, to confirm how well it works and watch for side effects.

Not every study follows the same path, and some studies (observational studies, device studies) have no phase.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Relapse-free survival. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT00032136, which also lists 12 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 2 Aug 2013.

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