Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide and the most common cause of cancer mortality in women. Seventy percent of breast cancers overexpress the estrogen (ER) and/or the progesterone receptor (PgR) making anti-endocrine therapies the most commonly used worldwide for this disease. These therapies are of low toxicity and low cost since most of them are off-patent and therefore very valuable in the armamentarium against this common form of breast cancer. Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMS), selective estrogen receptor down-regulators (SERDS), and aromatase inhibitors (estrogen synthetase) inhibitors (AIs) have been the backbone of recent endocrine treatment of breast cancer. These agents are reviewed here. More recently, combinations of evidence - based targeted therapies with these traditional endocrine therapies have further improved clinical outcomes. In the future, additional agents targeting pathways of resistance to endocrine therapy are likely to be developed.