title: Adjuvant therapy of breast cancer: the Southwest Oncology Group experience.
abstract: The Southwest Oncology Group in a prospective randomized study compared one year of adjuvant combination chemotherapy with continuous CMFVP (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil, vincristine, and prednisone) to two years of intermittent L-phenylalanine mustard (L-PAM) in women with operable breast cancer with histologically positive axillary lymph nodes. In fully and partially evaluable patients with a 68-month median follow-up, treatment failures have occurred in 27% of 172 receiving CMFVP and 47% of 186 women given L-PAM (p = 0.002). The advantage for women receiving CMFVP was seen for all subsets regardless of menopausal status except among women who were premenopausal and had 1-3 positive nodes. Based on this study, a second study was implemented using both the estrogen-receptor (ER) content of the primary tumor and axillary nodal status to select therapy.
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000628:therapy; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008408:Mastectomy; D008558:Melphalan / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008593:Menopause; D008727:Methotrexate / Q000008:administration & dosage; D011241:Prednisone / Q000008:administration & dosage; D014750:Vincristine / Q000008:administration & dosage
chemical_list: D014750:Vincristine; D003520:Cyclophosphamide; D008558:Melphalan; D005472:Fluorouracil; D011241:Prednisone; D008727:Methotrexate