Tamoxifen adjuvant treatment duration in early breast cancer:: Initial results of a randomized study comparing short-term treatment with long-term treatment
Tamoxifen adjuvant treatment duration in early breast cancer:: Initial results of a randomized study comparing short-term treatment with long-term treatment
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DOI:
10.1200/jco.2000.18.20.3507
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发表时间:
2000-10-15
影响因子:
45.3
通讯作者:
Namer, M
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Delozier, T;Spielmann, M;Namer, M
purpose: In 1986, The Federation Nationale des Centres de Lune Contre le Cancer Breast Group initiated a multicenter randomized trial to assess the usefulness of long-term adjuvant tamoxifen treatment. Short-term adjuvant tamoxifen treatment wets to be compared with lifelong adjuvant tamoxifen treatment.Patients and Methods: Patients who were disease-free after 2 to 3 years of adjuvant tamoxifen treatment were eligible for the trial. From September 1985 to May 1995, 3,793 patients were randomized from France, Belgium, and Argentina. A total of 1,882 patients stopped tamoxifen (short-term group), and 1,911 patients were to continue tamoxifen for life (long-term group) at the same dose as previously prescribed. The protocol was modified in February 1997, limiting tamoxifen treatment to 10 years after randomization, thus giving a comparison between a 2- to 3-year treatment and a 12- to 13-year treatment. To date, the median duration of tamoxifen treatment is 30 months in the short-term group, and 70 months in the long-term group.Results: Overall, longer tamoxifen treatment induced a 23% reduction in relapse rates, leading to a 7-year disease-free survival rate of 78%, compared with 72% in the shorter-treatment group. In contrast, overall survival did not differ between the two groups, with a 79% overall survival rate in both groups. This improvement in disease-free survival could be observed in node-positive patients (P = .001); however, it was not found in node-negative patients. Prolonged tamoxifen treatment corresponded to a significant increase in disease-free survival in estrogen receptor-positive patients (P = .03) as well as in estrogen receptor-negative patients (P = .05). Furthermore, longer treatment reduced contralateral breast cancers and did not increase the number of endometrial cancers.Conclusion: Although no survival advantage was noted, patients did benefit from longer tamoxifen treatment over 3 years and had significantly better disease-free survival compared with patients who stopped hormonal treatment. Long-term follow-up is needed to assess these results. Most patients in the long-term group are still receiving treatment. Comparison of results as time passes will enable conclusions to be made on the value of long-term treatment over 5 years compared with 2 to 3 years. (C) 2000 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.