Endocrine versus endocrine plus five‐drug chemotherapy in postmenopausal women with stage II estrogen receptor‐positive breast cancer

Abstract

Postmenopausal women who underwent modified radical mastectomy for Stage II, estrogen receptor (ER)‐positive breast cancer were randomized to receive endocrine treatment (tamoxifen [T], 40 mg daily for 3 years) alone versus endocrine treatment plus five‐drug chemotherapy (Cytoxan [cyclophosphamide, C], methotrexate [M], 5‐fluorouracil [F], vincristine [V], and prednisone [P], CMFVP, for 1 year). Chemotherapy consisted of oral P (1 month), oral C (12 months), and intravenous MFV weekly for the first 3 months, biweekly for 3 months, and triweekly for 6 months. Patients were entered into the study from October 1979, to October 1985, and the median follow‐up is 55 months. Results show that with 94 postmenopausal women, disease‐free survival (DFS) is significantly greater (P = 0.04, log‐rank test; P = 0.03, multivariate analysis) in patients receiving CMFVPT as compared to those receiving T alone. These results suggest that intensive chemotherapy combined with T is more effective in delaying recurrence than T alone in postmenopausal patients. Copyright © 1989 American Cancer Society