Medical treatment of early breast cancer. III: chemotherapy

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7534.161

BMJ 2006;332:161-162 (21 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7534.161

Practice

ABC of breast diseases

Medical treatment of early breast cancer. III: chemotherapy

Ian Smith, professor of cancer medicine

Royal Marsden Hospital, London

Susan Chua, medical oncologist

Melbourne, Australia.

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Adjuvant chemotherapy is of significant survival benefit inwomen aged < 70 years with moderate to high risk breast cancer.The benefits seem to be greater in younger women. This is mainlybecause of biological factors, including a higher incidenceof grade III and hormone receptor negative cancers. Ovarianfailure induced by chemotherapy is also likely to be a factorin women with oestrogen receptor positive tumours. Chemotherapybenefit is also seen in high risk women aged > 50 years,but for many of these women endocrine therapy alone may be justas effective, except when the tumour is grade III, tests positivefor human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), or thereis multiple node involvement. Risk benefit considerations arealways important here because of toxicity, and consensus criteriahave been defined to aid in selecting patients for treatment.