Addition of adjuvant tamoxifen to cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil for premenopausal women with oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To study the value of adjuvant tamoxifen (TAM) in premenopausal women with oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer who received adjuvant cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) polychemotherapy.


METHODS
Four hundred and two premenopausal ER-positive breast cancer patients who received CMF chemotherapy between January 1990 and December 1999 were retrospectively studied. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were used to evaluate the clinical value of TAM therapy. The relationships between nodal status and TAM were also analysed.


RESULTS
After a mean of 41 months of follow-up, 43 (13.7%) patients died of breast cancer and 68 (19.9%) patients suffered recurrence. There was a significant difference between TAM and non-TAM treatment groups for DFS (p=0.0058), but no significant difference for OS. For node-negative patients, there was no significant difference between the TAM and non-TAM treatment groups for either DFS or OS. For node-positive patients, the difference between TAM and non-TAM treatment groups was significant for both DFS and OS (p=0.0497 and p=0.0285, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
TAM resulted in additional benefit to premenopausal patients with node-positive ER-positive breast cancer who received the CMF polychemotherapy regimen.
Li
He-Cheng
HC
Department of Breast Surgery, Cancer Hospital/Cancer Institute, Fu-Dan University Medical Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
Wen
Xian-Feng
XF
Hou
Yi-Feng
YF
Shen
Kun-Wei
KW
Wu
Jong
J
Lu
Jing-Song
JS
Shen
Zhen-Zhou
ZZ
Shao
Zhi-Ming
ZM
D000328:Adult; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000601:surgery; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D008408:Mastectomy / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D009376:Neoplasms, Hormone-Dependent / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D017697:Premenopause; D011379:Prognosis; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D013629:Tamoxifen; D003520:Cyclophosphamide; D005472:Fluorouracil