Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

Polychemotherapy for early breast cancer: an overview of the randomised trials
Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group Lancet 1998; 352: 930 - 942

In summary: adjuvant chemotherapy reduced the relapse rate by 23.5% and the mortality rate by 15.3%. Some of the benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy by category are noted below:

10 Year Survival by Group (early = very small tumors with negative nodes)
Age	Chemotherapy	Early Cancer	Node Negative	Node Positive
< 50y	no	90%	71.2%	41.8%
	yes	92.6%	78.3%	53.3%
50 - 69y	no	90%	66.8%	45.9%
	yes	91%	69.2%	49.1%

Benefits of Chemotherapy by Age
Age	Reduction in Relapse	Reduction in Mortality
< 40y	37%	27%
40 - 49y	34%	27%
50 - 59y	22%	14%
60 - 69y	18%	8%

Benefits of Chemotherapy by Age and Estrogen Receptor Status
Age	Estrogen Receptor	Reduction in Relapse	Reduction in Mortality
< 50y	ERP +	33%	35%
	ERP -	40%	20%
50 - 69y	ERP +	18%	9%
	ERP -	30%	17%

10 Year Relapse Free Survival Rate
Age	Chemotherapy	Nodes Negative	Nodes Positive
< 50y	no	58%	32.2%
	yes	68.3%	47.6%
50 - 69y	no	59.9%	38%
	yes	65.6%	43.4%

10 Year Survival Rates
Age	Chemotherapy	Nodes Negative	Nodes Positive
< 50y	no	71.9%	41.4%
	yes	77.6%	53.8%
50 - 69y	no	64.8%	46.3%
	yes	71.2%	48.6%

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