title: The definition of the 'no change' category in patients treated with endocrine therapy and chemotherapy for advanced carcinoma of the breast.
abstract: In the criteria used for assessment of response to treatment for advanced breast cancer the definition of no change (NC) is clear; however, there is no indication of the duration of stabilization required for patients to qualify for this category of response. We have made the assumption that NC is a worthwhile category of response if the overall time to progression (TTP) and survival of this group is not significantly different from patients with partial remissions (PR). Two hundred and sixty-three evaluable patients treated with endocrine therapy and 302 evaluable chemotherapy-treated patients were studied and the TTP and survival curves for PR and periods of NC from 1 to 6 months compared. For the endocrine-treated patients the TTP and survival curves for NC became non-significantly different from the PR curves after 4 and 5 months respectively. For chemotherapy-treated patients the TTP curves became non-significantly different from PR at 4 months and for survival the period was 3 months. In order to define NC as a useful category of response and to eliminate the possibility that NC taken for a shorter period could simply represent a slowly progressive tumour, we suggest that the minimum period of disease stabilization be taken as 5 months for both endocrine- and chemotherapy-treated patients.
authors.affiliation: CRC Department of Medical Oncology, Christie Hospital, Manchester, U.K.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Howell
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mackintosh
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Redford
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wagstaff
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Sellwood
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010052:Ovariectomy; D011379:Prognosis; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D013629:Tamoxifen