Estrogens - the Saviors of Cognitive Function?

In the past decades, major progress has been made regarding prognosis of patients with breast cancer. This is due to early detection programs and improvements in diagnosis on the one hand and a large variety of highly effective therapy options on the other hand. Chemotherapy is still the backbone of therapy in a prominent part of patients – especially the triple negative and HER2-positive ones. However, patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer are treated by targeted endocrine therapy and can often be spared chemotherapy. The advantage of targeted therapies is their high efficacy in combination with a good side effect profile. Tamoxifen as well as aromatase inhibitors alone or in combination with GNRH (gonadotropin releasing hormone) agonists are generally well tolerated and much less toxic compared to chemotherapy, while they are at least as effective. Nonetheless, there are – somewhat in contrast to the data of clinical trials – bothersome side effects, which are sometimes the cause for incompliance or change of treatment. Hot flashes, arthralgia, weight gain, grade 1 alopecia, or diminished cognitive function as investigated by Berndt et al. [1] in this issue of BREAST CARE are reported by