Summary
After total mastectomy and partial axillary dissection, 805 premenopausal women with stage II breast cancer were randomized to receive postoperative radiotherapy (RT) alone, RT + cyclophosphamide (C) for 12 monthly cycles, or RT + cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/5-fluorouracil (CMF) for 12 monthly cycles. At 3 years actuarial relapse-free survival for RT + C and RT + CMF was significantly better than for RT alone (p = 0.0009 and 0.0001, respectively). There was no significant difference in relapse-free survival between RT + C and RT + CMF.
C resulted in more pronounced haematologic toxicity and a higher frequency of amenorrhoea and of alopecia than CMF, while CMF resulted in more pronounced nausea and stomatitis than C.
In the preliminary results, C alone may be as effective as CMF in prolonging relapse-free survival in premenopausal women with stage II breast cancer.
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Brincker, H., Mouridsen, H.T., Andersen, K.W. et al. Adjuvant chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide or CMF in premenopausal women with stage II breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Tr 3, 91–95 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01806239
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01806239