Breast Cancer Treatments Up Long-Term Survival
Breast Cancer Treatments Up Long-Term Survival
Study Says Chemotherapy, Hormone Therapy Responsible for Drop in Deaths
May 12, 2005 -- Advances in breast cancer have greatly improved long-term survival.
In a 15-year follow-up involving 145,000 women with early-stage breast cancer, researchers found that a woman's risk of dying from breast cancer was cut in half when she received six months of chemotherapy and five years of hormone therapy.
"This is very good news," study researcher Sarah Darby, PhD, tells WebMD. "Women with breast cancer should feel very enthusiastic about the therapies that are out there. They are very good."
Cancer survival is typically reported in terms of five-year survival. But many people want to know how likely they are to live 10 or 15 years -- or more.
Darby found that breast cancer treatments following surgery have had a significant impact on breastcancer survival 15 years down the road.
In fact, survival advantage at 15 years among women who got chemotherapy vs. those who didn't was about twice that reported five years after initial breast cancer treatment. The benefit for five years of tamoxifen vs. none was almost three times greater at 15 years than at five.
The combined effect of the two treatments is largely responsible for a drop in deaths from breastcancer in the U.S., the U.K., and other industrialized countries over the past decade and a half, Darby says.
The researchers tracked women who participated in 194 trials evaluating follow-up breast cancer treatments in the 1980s and early to mid-1990s. Tamoxifen was the only hormone treatment used when the studies were conducted.
Roughly three out of four breast cancer patients have tumors that grow in response to hormones -- called hormone sensitive -- and are candidates for estrogen-targeting treatments like tamoxifen.
With appropriate chemotherapy and hormone therapy, a 50-year-old woman who previously had a one-in-five chance of dying from her breast cancer would have a one-in-10 chance of dying, according to the researchers.
The study is published in the May 13 issue of the journal The Lancet.
"A woman with breast cancer detected very early might have a 20% risk of dying of her disease without chemotherapy and tamoxifen, and a 10% risk with it," Darby says. "So for every 100,000 women treated, there would be 10,000 deaths instead of 20,000."
Breast Cancer Treatments Up Long-Term Survival
Study Says Chemotherapy, Hormone Therapy Responsible for Drop in Deaths
May 12, 2005 -- Advances in breast cancer have greatly improved long-term survival.
In a 15-year follow-up involving 145,000 women with early-stage breast cancer, researchers found that a woman's risk of dying from breast cancer was cut in half when she received six months of chemotherapy and five years of hormone therapy.
"This is very good news," study researcher Sarah Darby, PhD, tells WebMD. "Women with breast cancer should feel very enthusiastic about the therapies that are out there. They are very good."
Long-Term Benefits
Cancer survival is typically reported in terms of five-year survival. But many people want to know how likely they are to live 10 or 15 years -- or more.
Darby found that breast cancer treatments following surgery have had a significant impact on breastcancer survival 15 years down the road.
In fact, survival advantage at 15 years among women who got chemotherapy vs. those who didn't was about twice that reported five years after initial breast cancer treatment. The benefit for five years of tamoxifen vs. none was almost three times greater at 15 years than at five.
The combined effect of the two treatments is largely responsible for a drop in deaths from breastcancer in the U.S., the U.K., and other industrialized countries over the past decade and a half, Darby says.
Tracking the Survival Advantage
The researchers tracked women who participated in 194 trials evaluating follow-up breast cancer treatments in the 1980s and early to mid-1990s. Tamoxifen was the only hormone treatment used when the studies were conducted.
Roughly three out of four breast cancer patients have tumors that grow in response to hormones -- called hormone sensitive -- and are candidates for estrogen-targeting treatments like tamoxifen.
With appropriate chemotherapy and hormone therapy, a 50-year-old woman who previously had a one-in-five chance of dying from her breast cancer would have a one-in-10 chance of dying, according to the researchers.
The study is published in the May 13 issue of the journal The Lancet.
"A woman with breast cancer detected very early might have a 20% risk of dying of her disease without chemotherapy and tamoxifen, and a 10% risk with it," Darby says. "So for every 100,000 women treated, there would be 10,000 deaths instead of 20,000."
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