How does the message of cancer specialists affect routine medical practice? Only sixty percent of surgical adjuvant breast cancer treatment is based on hormone receptor status

Very low-dose adjuvant chemotherapy in steroid receptor negative stage I breast cancer patients. Austrian Breast Cancer Study Group

A randomised clinical trial was performed to test whether or not low-dose chemotherapy lasting only 35 days improves the outcome of breast cancer patients with stage I disease and negative oestrogen and progesterone receptors (ER-, PgR-). Between 1984 and 1990, 277 stage I breast cancer patients with tumours negative for both oestrogen and progesterone receptors were randomised to receive either low-dose short-term chemotherapy or no chemotherapy. Chemotherapy consisted of one cycle of doxorubicin, vincristin (AV) and one cycle of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, fluorouracil (CMF). Patients were stratified for tumour stage, type of surgery, menopausal status and participating centre. Results were analysed both by univariate and multivariate statistical. After a median length of follow-up of 84 months, disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS) did not differ significantly between patients having received adjuvant chemotherapy and the control group. Uni- and multivariate analysis did not show any significant prognostic or therapy related factor. A low-dose short-term adjuvant chemotherapy is insufficient to improve the prognosis of patients with breast cancer stage I with ER-, PgR-tumours.