Comparative trial of low-dose adriamycin plus cyclophosphamide with or without additive hormonal therapy in advanced...

We treated 56 women with advanced metastatic breast cancer who had not received prior chemotherapy in a comparative trial of cytotoxic chemotherapy with low-dose adriamycin plus cyclophosphamide alone or in combination with the androgenic steroid calusterone. The response rate to chemohormonal therapy (65%) could not be shown to be statistically better than that for chemotherapy alone (53%) for this size patient population. However, the median remission duration (21.5 months) was significantly prolonged over the 11.5-month remission duration for chemotherapy alone (p = 0.03). The median survival of the chemohormonal therapy group was 23.5 months, whereas that for chemotherapy alone was 13.5 months (p = 0.05). These results indicate that the addition of a potent hormonal agent to effective cytotoxic chemotherapy improves the results of treatment of women with metastatic breast cancer.