Endocrine therapy has proven to be an extremely effective therapy in breast cancer. For women with hormone-receptor-positive tumors, tamoxifen given for as little as two years results in a statistically significant recurrence and survival benefit. The benefits increase as the duration of treatment increase, up to 5 years, so that among women treated for five years, tamoxifen can result in up to a 46 percent annual reduction in the recurrence rate and up to a 28 percent annual reduction in the death rate. This means that about half of the recurrences and more than one fourth of the deaths each year are prevented by tamoxifen treatment. However, despite initial successful responses, many patients on tamoxifen relapse and die from progressive disease. Consequently, tamoxifen resistance remains a major clinical problem in the management of breast cancer.