[Progress in breast cancer chemo-endocrine therapy from the survival standpoint].

The EBCTCG overview in 1992 made, it clear that a substantial percentage of patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy or endocrine therapy showed prolonged survival. In advanced breast cancer patients, indirect evidence was obtained that chemotherapy as well as endocrine therapy may prolong the survival of patients: changes in the survival of a defined cohort in decades, a comparison of the survival time of all patients randomized to a regimen with a higher response rate and that of patients with a lower response rate, and a comparison of the survival of responders and non-responders. We compared the survival times of advanced breast cancer patients treated with an endocrine therapy with adreno-oophorectomy to chemo-endocrine therapy with FAC. There was longer survival in the former group. In these 371 patients, a Cox's proportional hazard model with the landmark method including the response category for the survival estimation showed that the response has a definitive effect on survival. Selection of patients should be in terms of prognostic factors so as to prolong their survival.