Preoperative Hormone Therapy for Postmenopausal Women With ER+ Clinical Stage T2-4 Tumors

Inclusion Criteria

• •Histologically or cytologically confirmed breast cancer
• •ER positive (+)
• •Primary tumor 2-4 regional lymph nodes 0-2 (T2-4N0-2); patients may have metastatic disease, provided local-regional surgery is clinically indicated
• •Clinical stage II/III
• •Postmenopausal- defined as having had a previous bilateral oophorectomy or, for women with no prior hysterectomy, the absence of spontaneous menstrual cycles for more than 1 year
• •Newly diagnosed
• •Serum creatinine =\< 1.5 x institutional upper limit of normal (ULN)
• •Hemoglobin within normal limits for institution
• •Absolute granulocyte count \>= 1500
• •Platelet count \>= 100,000
• •Serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) or serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) =\< 2.5 x ULN
• •Total bilirubin \< 2 x ULN for institution
• •Alkaline phosphatase \< 2 x the ULN