[Chemotherapy of breast cancer--past experience and future prospects]

Based on the results of randomized clinical trials as multi-center studies in patients with advanced recurrent breast cancer, we discussed the future direction of chemotherapy for breast cancer and node 4 conclusions: 1) Concerning the combination of endocrine therapy and chemotherapy, ACT therapy with ADM, CPA, and tamoxifen seemed to be appropriate as the standard therapy. 2) Concerning the chemotherapy period, continuous administration seemed to be more standard than intermittent administration in terms of the QOL of patients. 3) There are limits in chemotherapy that increases the dose intensity by combination with G-CSF or bone marrow transplantation to overcome drug resistance and achieve a cure. However, the effectiveness of this method can be expected in selected patients in the future. 4) There are new promising drugs for chemotherapy such as taxanes. These drugs are expected to contribute to the development of treatment methods. From these aspects, we discussed the future direction of chemotherapy in clinical treatment and studies.