Continued value of adjuvant anthracyclines as treatment for early breast cancer

Anthracyclines are frequently used in the adjuvant treatment of early-stage breast cancer. However, with the increasing use of other active drugs--mainly taxanes and trastuzumab in HER2-positive disease--coupled with concerns about anthracycline-associated toxic effects, there is debate about whether anthracyclines are still needed. Three major factors should be taken into consideration with the investigation of the role of anthracyclines in management of early breast cancer; specifically, the proven efficacy of anthracyclines in breast cancer, the absence of superiority of non-anthracycline-based chemotherapy over anthracycline-taxane regimens, and the low risk of toxic effects associated with the cumulative doses of anthracyclines used in contemporary regimens. The risks remain substantially outweighed by the benefits of treatment with anthracyclines, and thus, they maintain an important role in adjuvant treatment of breast cancer, particularly in women with high-risk disease.