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Adjuvant!© Online estimation of chemotherapy effectiveness when added to ovarian function suppression plus tamoxifen for premenopausal women with estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer

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Abstract

Adjuvant!© Online (Adjuvant!) is a user-friendly, web-based tool that provides estimates of adjuvant therapy outcomes for individual patients. While reliable evidence underpins estimates for most patient cohorts, there is a paucity of data on the effect of adding chemotherapy to complete estrogen blockade for premenopausal women with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) Trial 11-93 enrolled 174 premenopausal women with estrogen-receptor positive, node-positive breast cancer. Among these patients, 55% had one positive axillary lymph node and 97% had three or fewer positive nodes. Patients were randomized to receive ovarian function suppression plus 5 years of tamoxifen with or without anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Estimated hazard rates and corresponding 10-year relapse-free survival percentages obtained from Trial 11-93 data were compared with those predicted using Adjuvant!. The 10-year relapse-free survival percentages predicted from Adjuvant! were 64.4% (95% CI, 61.9–67.2%) for endocrine therapy alone and 74.9% (95% CI, 73.1–76.8%) for chemoendocrine therapy. By contrast, these estimates in Trial 11-93 were 76.4% (95% CI, 65.8–84.0%) for endocrine therapy alone and 74.9% (95% CI, 64.5–82.7%) for chemoendocrine therapy. The Adjuvant! estimate for the endocrine-alone control group is lower than that observed in Trial 11-93 (P = 0.03), while the estimates for the two chemoendocrine therapy groups are similar. Adjuvant! appears to underestimate the effectiveness of adjuvant endocrine therapy alone for premenopausal women with endocrine responsive breast cancer, thus overestimating the added benefit, if any, from chemotherapy for this patient population.

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Acknowledgment

The International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) funded this research. The IBCSG is funded by the Swedish Cancer Society; The Cancer Council Australia; Australian New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group (NHMRC grant number 940892); The Frontier Science and Technology Research Foundation, the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK); Cancer Research Switzerland/Oncosuisse, the Foundation for Clinical Research of Eastern Switzerland (OSKK); and the United States National Cancer Institute (CA-75362). We thank Love Nickerson for collecting information on patient population from Adjuvant! Online.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Catholic University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Robert J. Paridaens

  2. IBCSG Statistical Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    Shari Gelber, Bernard F. Cole, Richard D. Gelber & Karen N. Price

  3. Frontier Science and Technology Research Foundation, Boston, MA, USA

    Shari Gelber, Richard D. Gelber & Karen N. Price

  4. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

    Bernard F. Cole

  5. Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Richard D. Gelber

  6. Breast Center, Kantonsspital St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Beat Thürlimann

  7. Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK), Bern, Switzerland

    Beat Thürlimann

  8. Department of Surgery, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Stig B. Holmberg

  9. Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Aviano, Italy

    Diana Crivellari

  10. University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Alan S. Coates

  11. European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy

    Aron Goldhirsch

  12. Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Bellinzona, Switzerland

    Aron Goldhirsch

Authors
  1. Robert J. Paridaens
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  2. Shari Gelber
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  3. Bernard F. Cole
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  4. Richard D. Gelber
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  5. Beat Thürlimann
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  6. Karen N. Price
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  7. Stig B. Holmberg
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  8. Diana Crivellari
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  9. Alan S. Coates
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  10. Aron Goldhirsch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert J. Paridaens.

Additional information

An invited commentary to this article can be found at doi:10.1007/s10549-010-0874-3.

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Paridaens, R.J., Gelber, S., Cole, B.F. et al. Adjuvant!© Online estimation of chemotherapy effectiveness when added to ovarian function suppression plus tamoxifen for premenopausal women with estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 123, 303–310 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-010-0794-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-010-0794-2

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