Treatment of Primary Breast Cancer with Chemotherapy and Tamoxifen

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Abstract
We studied the possibility that the addition of tamoxifen to L-phenylalanine mustard combined with 5-fluorouracil enhances the benefit from the latter two drugs that has been observed in women with primary breast cancer and positive axillary nodes. Recurrence of disease was reduced at two years in patients given the three-drug regimen whose tumor estrogen-receptor levels were ≥10 fmol. Among patients ≥50 years old treatment failure was significantly reduced (P<0.001): by 51 per cent in those with one to three positive nodes and by 64 per cent in those with four or more. Higher receptor levels were associated with a greater probability of disease-free survival. Patients ≤49 years old were less responsive: those with one to three positive nodes received no benefit from tamoxifen at any receptor level, whereas those with four or more appeared to have reduced treatment failure associated with higher receptor levels.