Comparison of Changes in the Lipid Profiles of Eastern Chinese Postmenopausal Women With Early-Stage Breast Cancer Treated With Different Aromatase Inhibitors: A Retrospective Study

Cardiovascular morbidity is closely associated with serum lipid level. We aimed to investigate the effects of different aromatase inhibitors, including letrozole, anastrozole, and exemestane, on the lipid profile of eastern Chinese breast cancer patients. We evaluated a retrospective cohort of eastern Chinese postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer who received aromatase inhibitors. A total of 116 postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer without prior cardiovascular disease were included. Lipid changes at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months were compared across the endocrine therapy categories. Our data demonstrated that exemestane treatment significantly decreased triglyceride level compared with letrozole after 24 months. However, the aromatase inhibitors had almost equivalent impacts on high-density liportein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride after long-term aromatase inhibitor treatment. As a small-size retrospective study, our data do not support a judgment about whether one Al or another carries more or less risk in terms of lipid disorders in eastern Chinese breast cancer patients. The exact effects need further randomized, controlled trials to investigate.