Efficacy, toxicity, and applicability of high-dose sequential chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment in operable breast cancer with 10 or more involved axillary nodes: five-year results.

PURPOSE

To assess the efficacy, toxicity, and applicability of high-dose therapy administered as adjuvant initial treatment to women with breast cancer with extensive nodal involvement.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Sixty-seven patients with stage II to III breast cancer involving > or = 10 axillary nodes received a novel high-dose sequential (HDS) regimen, including the high-dose administration of three non-cross-resistant drugs (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and melphalan) given within the shortest interval of time as possible with hematologic and nonhematologic toxicity.

RESULTS

Sixty-three patients completed the program as planned, one patient died of acute toxicity, and three patients were switched to standard-dose adjuvant therapy. After a median follow-up duration of 48.5 months and a lead follow-up of 78 months, actuarial relapse-free survival for all 67 registered patients is 57% and overall survival is 70%, respectively. Comparison with a historical control group of 58 consecutive patients showed a significantly superior rate of freedom from relapse for the HDS-treated group (57% v 41%, respectively), in particular when two subgroups of patients, more homogeneous for their number of involved nodes, were compared (65% v 42%). Overall, treatment was of short duration (median, 70 days), required a median of 32 days of hospital stay, and was associated with only a few severe side effects (the most distressing being oral mucositis after melphalan therapy).

CONCLUSION

HDS therapy emerges as an effective and applicable regimen, whose major toxicity was occasional. Final assessment of its value in a randomized, multicenter trial is presently underway.