Changes to This Summary (10/18/2012)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Stage I, II, IIIA, and Operable IIIC Breast Cancer

Added text to state that at the time of the original report, overall survival (OS) was not statistically significantly improved; however, a 7-year update of results for disease-free survival (DFS) and OS demonstrated that four cycles of TC (docetaxel and cyclophosphamide) was superior to standard AC (doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide) for both DFS and OS (cited Jones et al. as reference 196 and level of evidence 1iiA).

Added Table 6, Standard Adjuvant Chemotherapy Regimens for Stage I, II, IIIA, and Operable IIIC HER2/neu Non-Overexpressing Breast Cancer, to describe current standard chemotherapy regimens for the adjuvant treatment of operable breast cancer, for which no evidence exists to say that one is superior.

Revised Adjuvant chemotherapy 1970s to 2000: Anthracycline-based regimens versus CMF subsection title.

Revised Adjuvant Chemotherapy 2000s to Present: The role of adding taxanes to adjuvant therapy subsection title.

Revised Table 8, Adjuvant Systemic Treatment Options for Women With Axillary Node-Negative Breast Cancer, to state that for the postmenopausal, ER-positive or PR-positive patient group, low-risk treatment options included none or upfront aromatase inhibitors (AI) or tamoxifen followed by AI; intermediate-risk options included upfront AI or tamoxifen followed by AI plus or minus chemotherapy; and high-risk options included upfront AI or tamoxifen followed by AI plus or minus chemotherapy.

Revised Table 9, Treatment Options for Women With Axillary Node-Positive Breast Cancer, to state that for the postmenopausal, ER-positive or PR-positive patient group, treatment options include upfront AI or tamoxifen followed by AI plus chemotherapy, or upfront AI or tamoxifen followed by AI alone.

Stage IIIB, Inoperable IIIC, IV, Recurrent, and Metastatic Breast Cancer

Added text to state that the RIBBON-2 trial studied the efficacy of bevacizumab as a second-line treatment for metastatic breast cancer by randomly assigning patients in a 2:1 fashion to standard chemotherapy plus bevacizumab or standard chemotherapy plus placebo; results showed a median progression-free survival increase for the bevacizumab-containing treatment arm, but no statistically significant difference in OS was seen (cited Brufsky et al. as reference 108 and level of evidence 1iA).

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Adult Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.