Skip Navigation

JNCI Monographs 2001 2001(30):109-113;
© 2001 by Oxford University Press
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Morrow, M.
Right arrow Articles by Krontiras, H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Morrow, M.
Right arrow Articles by Krontiras, H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Journal of the National Cancer Institute Monographs, No. 30, 109-113, 2001
© 2001 Oxford University Press

Who Should Not Receive Chemotherapy? Data From American Databases and Trials

Monica Morrow, Helen Krontiras

Affiliation of authors: Lynn Sage Breast Center and the Department of Surgery, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.

Correspondence to: Monica Morrow, M.D., Northwestern University, 675 N. St. Clair St., Galter 13-104, Chicago, IL 60611 (e-mail: mmorrow{at}nmh.org).

The demonstration of the effectiveness of chemotherapy in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women, regardless of estrogen receptor (ER) status, raises the question of whether all breast cancer patients should receive chemotherapy. Several patient groups with such a favorable long-term prognosis that they will obtain an extremely small benefit from chemotherapy can be identified. They include patients with lymph node-negative tumors of 1 cm or less in size, those with grade 1 tumors between 1.1 and 2.0 cm in size, and those with tumors of favorable histologic type (tubular and mucinous) up to 3 cm in size. A patient subgroup in which it is not clear that the benefits of chemotherapy routinely exceed the risks is postmenopausal women with ER-positive, lymph node-negative cancers receiving tamoxifen. There is a wide variation in prognosis in this group, and chemotherapy should be reserved for those at high risk of recurrence. Finally, no benefit for chemotherapy in women aged 70 years and older has been identified. The high rate of death from causes other than breast cancer may negate small survival benefits, and after adjustment for quality of life, the duration of treatment exceeds the gain in life expectancy.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.