Evaluation of prognostic factors for 233 patients with recurrent advanced breast cancer

We analyzed possible prognostic factors in 233 patients with recurrent advanced breast cancer treated primarily by adriamycin, cyclophosphamide and ftorafur (ACF) therapy and ACF modifications. The patients were in the Cancer Institute Hospital from 1977 to 1986, and were followed-up until 1989. In terms of chemotherapeutic response, complete and partial responses were observed in 31 (13%) and 100 (43%) patients, respectively. The overall median survival from the beginning of chemotherapy was 20.3 months. The factors evaluated were response to chemotherapy, performance status (PS), age, disease-free interval (DFI), menopausal status, number of metastatic sites (step classification), presence or absence of liver metastasis, presence or absence of malignant effusion, and presence or absence of prior radiotherapy. Out of the nine factors, response to chemotherapy, PS, age, DFI and liver metastasis were significant factors affecting survival in univariate analysis, and multivariate analysis of these five factors revealed the survival to be markedly affected by response to chemotherapy (P less than 0.00001), PS (P = 0.00001) and DFI (P less than 0.00001).