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Cancer study shows surgery inadequate
Cancer study shows surgery inadequate
Systemic chemotherapy administered immediately after surgery enhances the disease-free state as well as the survival rate of at least some patients with carcinoma of the breast, according to the only clinical study to follow breast cancer patients over a ten-year period. The study found that surgery alone i s inadequate for bringing about a "permanent tumor-free state in a majority of (bresast cancer) patients." The study i s published in the April Surgery, Gynecology & Obsfefrics, official scientific iournal of the American College of Surgeons. Authors of the study are Bernard Fisher, MD, FACS; Nelson Slack, PhD; Donna
distressing" the finding that 76% of all patients with positive axillary nodes had a treatment failure (recurrence of disease) b y ten years and that only
24.9% survived.
The survival rate of those with one to three positive nodes was 37.5% and only 13.4% if four nodes contained cancer. "Also distributing was the observation that one out of four patients with negative axillary nodes displayed a treatment failure by ten years,"
the authors report.
These findings, according to the authors, "mandate the urgency for immediate evaluation of available systemic therapeutic agents postoperatively."
Katrych, RN; and Norman Wolmark, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, NY. Twenty-three major uni-
The limited chemotherapy used was more effective in patients having smaller tumors, a finding in keeping with the concept that adjuvant therapy i s likely to be most ef-
versity medical centers participated in the study initiated in 1958 to evaluate the efficacy of a short course of triethylenethio-
fective in a host with minimal residual tumor burden.
phosphoramide as an adjuvant to radical mastectomy in the treatment of patients withi primary carcinoma of the breast. The study gathered data on 826 women who received either a placebo or the cheimotherapeutic agent, thiotepa (triethylenethiophosphoramide), immediately following mastectomy. Results, according t a the authors, "indicated the inadequacy of standard operative therapy in effecting a permanent tumor-free state in a majority of patients." They considered "particularly
The study discredits the claim that the worth of an alternate treatment for breast cancer can be ascertained only by a period of observation much longer than five years. The authors found that 80% of the treatment failure occurring a t ten years were apparent by five years. Eighty-six percent of ten-year treatment failures in patients with positive nodes occurred by five years, and in patients with four positive nodes this was true in 92% of the cases. The study was supported by a US Public Health Service grant.
AORN Journal, May 1975, Vol 21, No 6
1011
Systemic chemotherapy administered immediately after surgery enhances the disease-free state as well as the survival rate of at least some patients with carcinoma of the breast, according to the only clinical study to follow breast cancer patients over a ten-year period. The study found that surgery alone i s inadequate for bringing about a "permanent tumor-free state in a majority of (bresast cancer) patients." The study i s published in the April Surgery, Gynecology & Obsfefrics, official scientific iournal of the American College of Surgeons. Authors of the study are Bernard Fisher, MD, FACS; Nelson Slack, PhD; Donna
distressing" the finding that 76% of all patients with positive axillary nodes had a treatment failure (recurrence of disease) b y ten years and that only
24.9% survived.
The survival rate of those with one to three positive nodes was 37.5% and only 13.4% if four nodes contained cancer. "Also distributing was the observation that one out of four patients with negative axillary nodes displayed a treatment failure by ten years,"
the authors report.
These findings, according to the authors, "mandate the urgency for immediate evaluation of available systemic therapeutic agents postoperatively."
Katrych, RN; and Norman Wolmark, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, NY. Twenty-three major uni-
The limited chemotherapy used was more effective in patients having smaller tumors, a finding in keeping with the concept that adjuvant therapy i s likely to be most ef-
versity medical centers participated in the study initiated in 1958 to evaluate the efficacy of a short course of triethylenethio-
fective in a host with minimal residual tumor burden.
phosphoramide as an adjuvant to radical mastectomy in the treatment of patients withi primary carcinoma of the breast. The study gathered data on 826 women who received either a placebo or the cheimotherapeutic agent, thiotepa (triethylenethiophosphoramide), immediately following mastectomy. Results, according t a the authors, "indicated the inadequacy of standard operative therapy in effecting a permanent tumor-free state in a majority of patients." They considered "particularly
The study discredits the claim that the worth of an alternate treatment for breast cancer can be ascertained only by a period of observation much longer than five years. The authors found that 80% of the treatment failure occurring a t ten years were apparent by five years. Eighty-six percent of ten-year treatment failures in patients with positive nodes occurred by five years, and in patients with four positive nodes this was true in 92% of the cases. The study was supported by a US Public Health Service grant.
AORN Journal, May 1975, Vol 21, No 6
1011