If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  DG DISPATCH - BREAST CANCER: Anthracycline Superior To Cyclophosphamide/Methotextrate/5FU By Louise Gagnon Special to DG News OTTAWA, ON -- July 28, 1999 -- Anthracycline is superior to a treatment consisting of cyclophosphamide, methotextrate and 5FU (CMF) in treating locoregionally advanced breast cancer and produces less toxicity, according to a retrospective analysis presented at a major breast cancer conference in Ottawa. Speaking at the World Conference on Breast Cancer yesterday, Dr. Ramasamy Madiajagane, medical oncologist at Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre in India, presented results comparing regimens of anthracycline and modified CMF as adjuvant chemotherapy. The former regimen proved to be more efficacious and to have a better side effect profile. The study analysed data on 41 patients who were treated from 1992 to 1997. Adjuvant therapy was given for T3, T4 or node-positive disease. Twenty patients received modified CMF while 21 patients received anthracycline. All patients were treated for a period of six weeks. All had undergone modified radical mastectomy prior to the study. Specifically, the modified CMF regimen consisted of cyclophosphamide (750mg/mg2) given intravenously (IV), 5FU (750mg/m2) and methotextrate (40mg/m2). The cycle was repeated at three week intervals. Patients on anthracycline received IV doses of 5FU, ADR and CTX, with the cycle repeated at three weeks. The researchers assessed all patients for toxicity after chemotherapy treatment. Radiotherapy was administered after chemotherapy. The distribution of premenopausal and postmenopausal patients was similar in both groups. Less than 30 percent of patients treated with CMF had a complete response to therapy (SIX out of 20). By contrast, 18 patients out of 21 (86 percent) who received anthracycline experienced a complete response, a figure that was statistically significant. Relapse occurred in fewer patients in the anthracycline group -- three out of 21 patients (15 percent) relapsed compared to 14 out of 20 (70 percent), respectively. Median follow-up was 29 months in CMF patients and 24 months in patients on anthracycline. Some sites of therapy failed more than others. Local sites failed most, followed by bone, liver, lung, brain and node. Nearly two-thirds of patients in the anthracycline group experienced alopecia compared to 24 percent in the CMF group. Additionally, 15 percent of patients on anthracycline experienced mucositis compared with six percent of patients on CMF.
|
