Extramural review of clinical response of breast cancer to cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Extramural evaluation of 385 clinical responses of advanced breast cancer agreed with the investigators' interpretation in 306 cases (79%) and disagreed in 19 cases (5%). Sixty cases (165%) were nonevaluable because of inadequate documentation. The rate of agreement with the seven groups of investigators ranged from 70% to 92%. The investigators had submitted their case material from review in preparation for their reporting on the relationship between the estrogen receptor content of breast cancer tissue and the response to cytotoxic chemotherapy. The reviewers used only objective criteria for their evaluation. They urge that clinical investigators report their findings quantitatively whenever possible and use standard methods of documentation.U