According to the latest research, women experiencing early stage breast cancer demonstrate much higher survival rates when they are treated both with chemotherapy and tamoxifen rather than with tamoxifen alone.
However, a second study discovered that a mixture of tamoxifen and ovarian-suppression treatment in order to stop the ovaries from functioning brought no additional benefits for patients.
The research involved 3 854 women experiencing early stage breast cancer who’d been treated with tamoxifen for the long period of five years. In the first study including 1 991 patients, 50 per cent received chemotherapy, whereas the rest of them did not. Some of the patients also experienced ovarian suppression. In the second study involving 2 144 premenopausal women, 50 per cent of the patents received ovarian suppression, while the remainder did not.
Moderate but continuous improvement
According to the findings of the first study, the women who received chemotherapy demonstrated a moderate but continuous improvement in both relapse-free and general survival. This was particularly true in women under the age of fifty and in those who did not experience ovarian suppression.
In the second study, the investigators discovered that women who suffered ovarian suppression did not demonstrate any improvements in relapse-free or overall survival.
The international research was published in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It was carried out by the Adjuvant Breast Cancer Trials Collaborative Group.
