High risk breast cancer: long-term surgical adjuvant therapy based on predictive tests - preliminary report

A surgical adjuvant therapy trial was started in 1974, in locoregionally advanced breast cancer. The adjuvant hormonal and cytostatic therapeutic regimen was administered according to the results of predictive tests: estrogen receptor (ER) assay and oncobiogram (group I); in the control group (0) no adjuvant therapy was given until relapse, but tests were performed like in group I. Preliminary results. In a subgroup with adjuvant chemotherapy, using one or more substances according to oncobiogram, with or without hormonal treatment, the treated women did highly-significantly better, compared with the untreated group. No advantage was seen from ovariectomy and/or anabolic steroids, either with or without Cytoxan (Test results: ER +, in vitro not growing tumours). Some doubt exists about the results: resistant, especially in testing cytostatics. This doubt and the rate of tumours, not growing in vitro, limit the use of predictive tests, concerning cytostatics. Further, one has to be cautious in the use of additive hormonal treatment in surgical adjuvant therapy: in some cases stimulation can not be excluded.