A Comparison of Letrozole Regimens
A Comparison of Letrozole Regimens
A Comparison of Letrozole Regimens
Objective: To determine the optimal letrozole regimen for ovulation induction (OI) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: Single academic fertility clinic from 2015–2022.
Patient(s): A total of 189 OI cycles in 52 patients with PCOS
Intervention(s): Patients were prescribed 1 of 4 letrozole regimens (group 1: 2.5 mg for 5 days, group 2: 2.5 mg for 10 days, group 3: 5
mg for 5 days, and group 4: 5 mg for 10 days).
Main outcome measure(s): The primary outcome was ovulation, and secondary outcomes included multifollicular development, and
clinical pregnancy rate, which were analyzed with binary logistic regression. Kaplan-Meier cumulative response curves and a Cox
proportional hazard regression model were used for time-dependent analyses.
Results: Mean age was 30.9 years (standard deviation [SD], 3.6) and body mass index was 32.1 kg/m2 (SD, 4.0). Group 2 (odds ratio
[OR], 9.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.92–43.25), group 3 (OR, 3.40; 95% CI, 1.57-7.37), and group 4 (OR, 5.94; 95% CI, 2.48–14.23)
had improved ovulation rates after the starting regimen as compared with group 1. Cumulative ovulation rates exceeded 84% in all
groups, yet those who received 5 mg and/or 10 days achieved ovulation significantly sooner. Multifollicular development was not
increased in groups 2–4 as compared with group 1. Groups 2–4 also demonstrated improved time to pregnancy.
Conclusions: Ovulation rates are improved when starting with letrozole at 5 mg and/or a 10-day extended course as compared with the
frequently-used 2.5 mg for 5 days. This may shorten time to ovulation and pregnancy. (F S RepÒ 2024;5:170–5. Ó2024 by American
Society for Reproductive Medicine.)
Key Words: ovulation induction, letrozole, ovulation, polycystic ovary syndrome
L
etrozole is a selective, reversible, 5). Subsequent randomized controlled from the treatment of postmenopausal
competitive inhibitor of the aro- trials suggested that 2.5 mg was the women with hormone-sensitive breast
matase enzyme developed optimal dose in terms of breast cancer cancer, and administered letrozole be-
initially in the early 1990s for the treat- survival (5–8). tween days 3–7 of the menstrual cycle
ment of postmenopausal women with Mitwally and Casper (9) first as is typical with the clomiphene citrate
estrogen-sensitive breast cancer (1). described the off-label use of letrozole regimen. Since then, multiple high-
Initial phase I and II studies of letrozole for ovulation induction in women quality studies have suggested that
in postmenopausal women found that with polycystic ovary syndrome letrozole indeed may be superior to clo-
estrogen levels correlated with letrozole (PCOS) who had failed treatment with mid for ovulation induction in women
dose but that in this population doses clomiphene citrate. They used the with PCOS, in increasing ovulation
>0.5 mg led to extremely low- Food and Drug Administration– and live birth rates and decreasing
estrogen levels below assay limits (2– approved 2.5 mg dose, extrapolated risk of multiple gestation (10–14).
However, despite favorable data
Received October 26, 2023; revised March 22, 2024; accepted March 25, 2024.
Presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Scientific Congress and Expo 2022, An- supporting the use of letrozole for
aheim, California, October 22–26, 2022. ovulation induction in women with
Correspondence: Rachel S. Mandelbaum, M.D., Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility,
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Southern California, 2020 Zonal
PCOS, the ideal letrozole regimen re-
Avenue, IRD520, Los Angeles, CA 90033 (E-mail: rachel.mandelbaum@med.usc.edu). mains unknown and warrants evalua-
tion. Pharmacodynamic data in
F S Rep® Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2024 2666-3341
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of American Society for Reproductive Med- postmenopausal women that underpin
icine. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ the commonly used 2.5 mg dose may
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xfre.2024.03.004
not be valid in premenopausal
reproductive-aged women who have active ovarian estrogen to catalyze follicular development and ovulation; however,
production, particularly women with PCOS who often have original grouping was unchanged in the analysis. Cycles
elevated body mass and chronic estrogen exposure. It is were considered separate events if they were separated by a
possible that higher doses may be beneficial in fertility pa- menstrual period or if >1 month time elapsed without inter-
tients for a greater degree of suppression of estrogen produc- vention in anovulatory patients with confirmation of ovarian
tion and resultant follicle-stimulating hormone rise. quiescence based on hormone levels and ultrasound before
Additionally, while usually administered for 5 days as with the next cycle.
clomiphene citrate, letrozole differs from clomiphene citrate
in its mechanism of action and half-life. Letrozole is an aro-
Primary outcomes
matase inhibitor with a shorter half-life of 2 days, whereas
clomiphene is an estrogen receptor antagonist with a half- The primary outcome of the study was response to the starting
life more than twice that. Thus, a 5-day course of letrozole letrozole regimen in that particular ovulation induction cycle,
may not be the ideal duration to support follicular growth. i.e., whether or not ovulation occurred. Secondary outcomes
The objective of this study was to compare 4 different were the rate of multifollicular development and clinical
starting doses of letrozole for ovulation induction in women pregnancy rate. Clinical pregnancy rate was determined by
with PCOS. a positive pregnancy test followed by the presence of fetal
cardiac motion on ultrasound.
TABLE 1
Patient demographics
Group 1 Group 4
Variable 2.5 mg, 5 d Group 2 2.5 mg, 10 d Group 3 5 mg, 5 d 5 mg, 10 d P value
Age, y (mean, SD) 30.6 (3.6) 29.9 (3.7) 32.0 (3.8) 30.2 (3.1) .03
Hispanic (%) 96.8 100 100 96.2 445
Body mass index, kg/m2 (mean, SD) 32.1 (3.7) 30.2 (16) 31.2 (4.4) 32.5 (4.1) .09
Antimulterian hormone (mean, SD) 8.4 (5.8) 7.2 (4.3) 7.9 (38) 10.6 (5.6) .021a
Day 2-3 folicle-stimulating hormone -1.3 4.9 (16) 6.0 (1.0) 6.0 (16) .007a
(mean, SD)
Nuligravid (%) 64.5 82.4 36.8 71.7 .002a
Multiparity (%) 18.8 16.7 50.8 7.4 < .001a
Oligomenorrhea (%) 98.4 100 100 100 .560
Hyperandrogenism (%) 75.8 70.6 82.5 90.6 .133
Polycystic ovarian morphology (%) 88.7 100 94.7 96.2 .221
Prediabetes or diabetes mellitus (%) 40.3 5.9 47.4 41.5 .035a
Metformin use (%) 33.9 5.9 45.6 39.6 .025a
Hypertension (%) 97 0 12.3 1.9 .104
Hyperlipidemia (%) 32.3 29.4 43.9 17 .26
Mean (standard deviation) or percentage per column for each group is shown. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for P value for continuous variables, and X2 test for categorical variables.
a
Significant P values.
Mandelbaum. Letrozole regimens for ovulation induction in PCOS. F S Rep 2024.
per group. Mean age of the entire cohort was 30.6 years (stan- ping’’ the dose did not significantly differ among the 4 groups
dard deviation [SD], 4.0) and body mass index was 32.0 kg/m2 (P>.05, all), and >84% of patients eventually ovulated in all
(SD, 4.1). The vast majority of patients were Hispanic, nulli- groups. However, time to ovulation was statistically signifi-
gravid, and obese. Antim€ ullerian hormone values were cantly longer for patients in group 1 as compared with the
elevated across all groups consistent with PCOS. Most pa- other 3 groups after adjusting for preselected covariates
tients met all 3 Rotterdam criteria for PCOS diagnosis. Group (Fig. 1, P< .001). Mean time to ovulation was 22.4 (SD,
2 patients had lower rates of prediabetes or diabetes mellitus. 11.0) days for group 1 as compared with 12.0 (SD, 3.8), 12.9
The mean number of cycles per patient was 3.8 (SD, 3.0). Of (SD, 5.9), and 14.3 (SD, 3.6) for groups 2, 3, and 4, respec-
the patients in the data set 29% underwent only 1 cycle, tively. In a time-dependent multivariable model, ovulation
whereas 60% underwent R3, and 23% underwent R6 cycles. was >3 times more likely for patients in groups 2, 3, or 4 as
The mean number of days between ovulation induction cycles compared with group 1 (Table 3). Increasing body mass index
in this study was 117 days (SD, 208). A new cycle was defined also was associated with lower likelihood of response.
in this study as a menstrual period if the patient was ovulatory Based on these results, a time-dependent analysis of cu-
the prior cycle, or in anovulatory patients, if at least 1 month mulative pregnancy rate was performed (Supplemental
time elapsed without intervention and there was confirmation Fig. 2 and Supplemental Table 1, available online). Patients
of early follicular phase based on serum hormone values and were censored if there was no follow-up or a lapse in treat-
ultrasound findings. These data reflect that many times pa- ment. Groups 2–4 were combined given low numbers of total
tients had nonconsecutive cycles because of either lapses in events and no difference between the groups in the primary
treatment or returning to treatment after pregnancy (either endpoint. Indeed, there was a significant difference in cumu-
birth or miscarriage) in attempts to conceive again. There lative pregnancy rates between groups 2–4 and group 1
was no significant difference in time between ovulation in- (P¼ .005), and in the multivariable Cox regression model,
duction cycles between groups. there was an increased hazard of pregnancy in groups 2–4
Outcomes after starting the letrozole regimen for ovula- as compared with group 1 (P¼ .006; Supplemental Table 1).
tion induction cycles are shown in Table 2. Group 1 had a sta-
tistically significantly lower ovulation rate after the starting
letrozole regimen than groups 2, 3, or 4. There was no statis- DISCUSSION
tical difference in pairwise comparisons between groups 2, 3, Results of this study suggest that a starting dose of letrozole
and 4. Rates of multifollicular development did not increase 2.5 for 5 days is associated with lower ovulation rates and a
with increased dose or duration of letrozole. Finally, the clin- longer time interval to reach ovulation as compared with
ical pregnancy rate was highest in group 3 (22%) and lowest starting at a 5 mg dose or for an extended 10-day course.
in group 2 (6.7%); however, differences in clinical pregnancy There was no increased likelihood of multifollicular recruit-
rates were not statistically significant with group 1 as the ment with a higher dose or longer duration in this study.
referent group nor with additional pairwise comparisons Most studies evaluating letrozole for ovulation induc-
(P>.05, all). There were no multiple gestations in the cohort. tion in PCOS have used a starting regimen identical to that
If a patient did not respond to the initial letrozole dose, as reported by Casper and Mitwally (9) in 2001 with
the dose was increased sequentially in a stair-step method un- sequential increases in dose if there was no response (10,
til ovulation was achieved. Overall response after ‘‘stair-step- 15, 16). The 2014 randomized controlled trial by Legro
TABLE 2
et al. (10) comparing clomiphene 50 mg to letrozole 2.5 mg There is sparse high-quality literature examining higher
for ovulation induction in 750 patients with PCOS is doses and extended regimens of letrozole, but the studies
perhaps the most widely-cited evidence for letrozole use. that do exist report conflicting results. In terms of dose, higher
In that study, the dose was increased if no response was starting doses of letrozole have been studied with varying
observed. Interestingly, after letrozole 2.5 mg for 5 days success in the PCOS and unexplained infertility populations.
only, 28.6% of patients ovulated; the majority required Al-Fadhli, et al. (17) randomized patients with unexplained
dose increases to achieve response. Legro et al. (10) re- infertility to letrozole 2.5 or 5 mg on days 3–7 of the men-
ported time from study randomization to live birth, and strual cycle and found that the 5 mg dose led to significantly
they found that letrozole had a cumulative higher birth increased number of periovulatory follicles and pregnancy
rate, but time to pregnancy did not differ between the 2 rates. In contrast, a randomized controlled trial in patients
groups. Our study suggests that time to pregnancy theoret- with PCOS undergoing ovulation induction that compared a
ically could be improved with higher starting doses of le- 5 mg to a 7.5 mg dose did not find any statistical difference
trozole or extended duration. in outcomes (18). Similarly, another randomized trial
comparing 3 doses of letrozole (2.5, 5, and 7.5 mg) found
that a higher doses led to an increase in the number of perio-
vulatory follicles but that this did not translate to higher preg-
FIGURE 1 nancy rates (19). It appears that dose increases to even as high
as 12.5 mg may increase number of follicles but may not
translate to significantly improved pregnancy rates (20).
The first study to examine longer durations of letrozole
was in 2009 and found that women with PCOS who were ran-
domized to letrozole 2.5 mg for 10 days had an increased
number of follicles and a higher pregnancy rate per cycle
compared with those who received 5 mg for 5 days (21). There
was no significant difference, however, in the number of pa-
tients who achieved ovulation after the starting regimen
(65.7% vs. 61.8%, respectively). Another very recent study
also reported on a method to increase duration of letrozole
treatment sequentially at a 5 mg dose from 5 to 7 to 10
days should no response occur with a 5-day course (22).
This study reported that 70% of patients ovulated after a 7-
day cycle, which is similar to but slightly lower than the
Ovulation by starting letrozole group.
Kaplan-Meier survival analysis with log-rank test for P value. X-axis response rates in groups 2–4 in our study after the first start-
represents time to ovulation in days. Y-axis represents cumulative ing letrozole course. The referenced study only considered a
ovulation rate. subset of patients who were resistant to letrozole 5 mg for 5
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