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. 1981 May 2;282(6274):1427–1431. doi: 10.1136/bmj.282.6274.1427

Multimodal treatment in operable breast cancer: five-year results of the CMF programme.

A Rossi, G Bonadonna, P Valagussa, U Veronesi
PMCID: PMC1505178  PMID: 6784849

Abstract

The five-year results of a prospective randomised trial of radical mastectomy (179 patients) versus radical mastectomy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (207 patients) were analysed. Chemotherapy consisted of 12 monthly cycles of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF). Both relapse-free survival (controls 44.6%, CMF group 59.5%) and total survival (controls 66.2%, CMF group 78.4%) were significantly improved. The findings were related to the number of diseased axillary nodes and amount of drug administered, and were independent of CMF-induced amenorrhoea. Menopausal state alone appeared to affect the five-year results only when the amount of drug administered was not taken into account. Salvage treatment at first relapse failed to improve total survival in the controls compared with the CMF group. Acute toxic manifestations were moderate and reversible. Chronic organ damage and increased incidence of second neoplasms (controls 1.7%, CMF group 1.4%) were not observed. The multimodality approach to treatment of primary breast cancer is a new and important advance. This and other studies are continuing.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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