title: Maintenance hormonal treatment improves progression free survival after a first line chemotherapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
abstract: The present study was conducted in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Its aim was to identify the factors which influence progression -free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) after the first line of chemotherapy in patients with positive tumour hormone receptor status. The patients with early disease progression during first-line chemotherapy were not included. In total, 560 patients who achieved a stable disease or a response to first-line chemotherapy were studied. The factors identified to improve the duration of PFS or OS in multivariate analysis were: number of metastatic sites (p = .01; p = .01), metastatic sites (p = .02; p = .04), Disease free interval (p = .001; p < .0001), previous hormonal therapy (p = .03; p = ns), response to first line chemotherapy (p < .0001; p = 0.0001) and an administration of maintenance hormonal therapy (p < .0001; p = .001). The major impact obtained by maintenance hormonal treatment after first-line chemotherapy in this study seems to indicate that this strategy should be recommended in patients with an ER or PgR positive tumour.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital E. Herriot, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Armelle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dufresne
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Pivot
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tournigand
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Facchini
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alweeg
authors.forename: Loic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chaigneau
authors.forename: Aimery
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Gramont
mesh_terms: D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D011379:Prognosis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal