5-drug adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

A series of 41 patients at the MGH who received 5-drug chemotherapy, cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil, vincristine and prednisone, (CMF VP) as adjuvant to surgical treatment of operable breast cancer with 4 or more positive axillary nodes is compared to an analogous group of patients treated with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) reported by Bonadonna et al. in an effort to assess the contribution of the treatment program to disease control. The MGH pattern of disease free survival closely parallels that of Bonadonna. Median disease-free survival among the 24 patients who have not recurred is 27 months; among those who recurred 18 months. The analogous medians for treated patients in the Bonadonna study are 24 months and 16 months, as compared to 27 months and 8 months for his nontreated controls. The treatment program, carried out over a two year period, was well tolerated with excellent patient compliance. There was no significant impact, however, in the disease-free survival of postmenopausal patients. While use of this regimen improved disease-free survival in premenopausal individuals, it is clear that a great deal of room for improvement exists, and newer regimens should be investigated.