Combination Chemotherapy With or Without Epirubicin in Treating Women With Stage I or Stage II Breast Cancer

Summary

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells. It is not yet known whether combination chemotherapy plus epirubicin is more effective than combination chemotherapy alone for stage I or stage II breast cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying combination chemotherapy alone to see how well it works compared to combination chemotherapy and epirubicin in treating women with stage I or stage II breast cancer who have undergone surgery to remove the tumor.

Timeline

Start

1996-03

Primary completion

—

Completion

2008-09

Publications

• Background Earl H, Hiller L, Dunn JA, et al.: The National Epirubicin Adjuvant Trial (NEAT) and Scottish Cancer Trials Breast Group (SCTBG) br9601 randomized phase III adjuvant early breast cancer trials: the updated definitive joint analysis. [Abstract] J Clin Oncol 25 (Suppl 18): A-534, 11s, 2007.
• Background Poole CJ, Earl HM, Hiller L, Dunn JA, Bathers S, Grieve RJ, Spooner DA, Agrawal RK, Fernando IN, Brunt AM, O'Reilly SM, Crawford SM, Rea DW, Simmonds P, Mansi JL, Stanley A, Harvey P, McAdam K, Foster L, Leonard RC, Twelves CJ; NEAT Investigators and the SCTBG. Epirubicin and cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil as adjuvant therapy for early breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2006 Nov 2;355(18):1851-62. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa052084.
• Background Poole CJ, Earl HM, Dunn JA, et al.: NEAT (National Epirubicin Adjuvant Trial) and SCTBG BR9601 (Scottish Cancer Trials Breast Group) phase III adjuvant breast trials show a significant relapse-free and overall survival advantage for sequential ECMF. [Abstract] Proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology 22: A-13, 4, 2003.
• Results Earl HM, Hiller L, Dunn JA, Bathers S, Harvey P, Stanley A, Grieve RJ, Agrawal RK, Fernando IN, Brunt AM, McAdam K, O'Reilly S, Rea DW, Spooner D, Poole CJ; NEAT Investigators. NEAT: National Epirubicin Adjuvant Trial--toxicity, delivered dose intensity and quality of life. Br J Cancer. 2008 Oct 21;99(8):1226-31. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6604674. Epub 2008 Sep 16.
• Ali HR, Glont SE, Blows FM, Provenzano E, Dawson SJ, Liu B, Hiller L, Dunn J, Poole CJ, Bowden S, Earl HM, Pharoah PD, Caldas C. PD-L1 protein expression in breast cancer is rare, enriched in basal-like tumours and associated with infiltrating lymphocytes. Ann Oncol. 2015 Jul;26(7):1488-93. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdv192. Epub 2015 Apr 20.
• Ali HR, Provenzano E, Dawson SJ, Blows FM, Liu B, Shah M, Earl HM, Poole CJ, Hiller L, Dunn JA, Bowden SJ, Twelves C, Bartlett JM, Mahmoud SM, Rakha E, Ellis IO, Liu S, Gao D, Nielsen TO, Pharoah PD, Caldas C. Association between CD8+ T-cell infiltration and breast cancer survival in 12,439 patients. Ann Oncol. 2014 Aug;25(8):1536-43. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdu191. Epub 2014 Jun 9.

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