ObjectiveTo investigate the efficacy and safety of using tamoxifen sequential with the third generation aromatase inhibitors versus the third generation aromatase inhibitors or tamoxifen alone for postmenopausal hormone receptor-positive breast cancer patients.MethodsThe Cochrane Library (Issue 10, 2016), PubMed, EMbase, CNKI, and WanFang Data were searched to collect randomized controlled trials on using tamoxifen sequential with the third generation aromatase inhibitors versus the third generation aromatase inhibitors or tamoxifen alone for postmenopausal hormone receptor-positive breast cancer patients from inception to October, 2016. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies, then meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsA total of 9 studies involving 22 005 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that the sequential therapy group was superior to the tamoxifen monotherapy group on overall survival (HR=0.71, 95%CI 0.52 to 0.98, P=0.04) and recurrence-free survival (HR=0.60, 95%CI 0.46 to 0.79, P=0.000 3). However, no significant difference was found in overall survival and disease free survival between the sequential therapy group and the aromatase inhibitors monotherapy group. As to adverse events, compared with the tamoxifen monotherapy group, the sequential therapy group could reduce the incidence of endometrial hyperplasia (OR=0.22, 95%CI 0.11 to 0.45, P<0.000 01), death (OR=0.74, 95%CI 0.66 to 0.84, P<0.000 01) and metastasis (OR=0.79, 95%CI 0.68 to 0.91, P=0.001); however, the incidence of bone fracture was higher in sequential therapy group compared with intamoxifen monotherapy group (OR=1.31, 95%CI 1.13 to 1.51, P=0.000 3).ConclusionThe sequential therapy using tamoxifen and the third generation of aromatase inhibitors is better than tamoxifen monotherapy for postmenopausal hormone receptor-positive breast cancer patients. However, there is no significant difference in survival benefit between the sequential therapy and aromatase inhibitors monotherapy.