[Adjuvant therapy for breast cancer patients: treatment decision tree from a French cancer network]

Although the benefit of adjuvant therapy has largely been demonstrated for patients with local breast cancer, therapeutic indications remain controversial. The French regional cancer network Oncora investigated the decision-making process for this disease. Based on a thorough review of the literature, the risk of relapse and the potential benefit of adjuvant treatments for each group of patients were evaluated. A consensus decision-tree was drawn in which chemotherapy is proposed only to patients in whom it is expected to decrease the risk of relapse by at least 5 %. This approach, based on a widely accepted decision-making model, makes it possible to offer all patients of the network homogeneous treatment options. However, due to the subjectivity of risk/benefit estimations, patients themselves should become more involved in the decision-making process.