BACKGROUND

The authors previously reported results from a randomized trial of standard-dose chemotherapy with combined 5-fluorouracil (1000 mg/m2 per cycle), doxorubicin (50 mg/m2 per cycle), and cyclophosphamide (500 mg/m2 per cycle) (FAC) versus FAC followed by high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) and autologous stem cell support (ASCS) for patients with high-risk primary breast carcinoma. After a median follow-up of 6.5 years, no significant differences were observed in recurrence-free survival (RFS) or overall survival (OS) between the 2 arms. This report updates the survival analyses.

METHODS

Patients with >or=10 positive axillary lymph nodes after primary surgery or >or=4 positive lymph nodes at surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy were eligible. All patients were to receive 8 cycles of FAC. Patients were assigned randomly to receive either no further chemotherapy or 2 cycles of combined high-dose cyclophosphamide (5250 mg/m2 per cycle), etoposide (1200 mg/m2 per cycle), and cisplatin (165 mg/m2 per cycle) with ASCS. Primary endpoints were RFS and OS. RFS and OS were calculated by using the Kaplan-Meier method. The log-rank statistic was used to compare treatment arms.

RESULTS

Between 1990 and 1997, 78 patients were registered, and 39 patients were assigned randomly to each arm. The median follow-up for all patients who were alive at last follow-up was 142.5 months (range, 45-169 months). An intention-to-treat analysis showed no significant difference between the 2 arms in terms of RFS (at 10 years: 40% with FAC vs. 26% with FAC plus HDCT; P=.11) or OS (at 10 years: 47% with FAC vs. 42% with FAC plus HDCT; P=.13).

CONCLUSIONS

With a median follow-up of nearly 12 years for patients who remained alive, this trial continued to demonstrate no RFS or OS advantage for patients with high-risk primary breast carcinoma treated with HDCT after standard-dose FAC chemotherapy.