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Background: Initial findings from the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (P-1) demonstrated that tamoxifen reduced the risk of estrogen receptor-positive tumors and osteoporotic fractures in women at increased risk for breast cancer. Side effects of varying clinical significance were observed. The trial was unblinded because of the positive results, and follow-up continued. This report updates our initial findings. Methods: Women (n = 13388) were randomly assigned to receive placebo or tamoxifen for 5 years. Rates of breast cancer and other events were compared by the use of risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Estimates of the net benefit from 5 years of tamoxifen therapy were compared by age, race, and categories of predicted breast cancer risk. Statistical tests were two-sided. Results: After 7 years of follow-up, the cumulative rate of invasive breast cancer was reduced from 42.5 per 1000 women in the placebo group to 24.8 per 1000 women in the tamoxifen group (RR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.46 to 0.70) and the cumulative rate of noninvasive breast cancer was reduced from 15.8 per 1000 women in the placebo group to 10.2 per 1000 women in the tamoxifen group (RR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.45 to 0.89). These reductions were similar to those seen in the initial report. Tamoxifen led to a 32% reduction in osteoporotic fractures (RR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.51 to 0.92). Relative risks of stroke, deep-vein thrombosis, and cataracts (which increased with tamoxifen) and of ischemic heart disease and death (which were not changed with tamoxifen) were also similar to those initially reported. Risks of pulmonary embolism were approximately 11% lower than in the original report, and risks of endometrial cancer were about 29% higher, but these differences were not statistically significant. The net benefit achieved with tamoxifen varied according to age, race, and level of breast cancer risk. Conclusions: Despite the potential bias caused by the unblinding of the P-1 trial, the magnitudes of all beneficial and undesirable treatment effects of tamoxifen were similar to those initially reported, with notable reductions in breast cancer and increased risks of thromboembolic events and endometrial cancer. Readily identifiable subsets of individuals comprising 2.5 million women could derive a net benefit from the drug.

Background: Results from three National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project sequentially conducted randomized trials of postoperative chemotherapy in women with estrogen receptor-negative tumors and negative axillary lymph nodes have demonstrated that a combination of methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (MF) is more effective than surgery alone, that cyclophosphamide with MF (CMF) is more effective than MF, and that CMF and doxorubicin (Adriamycin) with cyclophosphamide (AC) are equally beneficial. This report presents updated findings from those trials, relates the results to age and menopausal status, and estimates the extent of progress made in treating such patients. Methods: Patients were randomly assigned as follows: in B-13, 760 patients were assigned to surgery only or to MF; in B-19, 1095 patients were assigned to MF or CMF; in B-23, 2008 patients were assigned to CMF or AC. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated according to age and menopausal status. Smoothed recurrence rates were used to evaluate patterns of recurrence as a continuous function of age. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to test for interactions between treatment and covariates and to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for pairwise group comparisons. Results: In B-13, through 16 years of follow-up, an overall benefit was seen with MF relative to surgery alone (RFS: HR = 0.59, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.44 to 0.78, P

Background: Tamoxifen reduces the risk for contralateral breast cancer by approximately 30%-50%, with benefits probably limited to women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive primary disease. In a retrospective analysis of data from National Surgical and Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project trials B-18, B-22, and B-25, we determined whether the ER status of primary breast cancer predicts the ER status of a subsequent contralateral breast cancer and whether tamoxifen treatment affects this relationship. In these trials, tamoxifen at 20 mg/day had been administered only to women aged 50 years or older, rather than to those determined by the ER status of their primary tumor, allowing an assessment of the treatment's effects in ER-negative disease. Methods: Among the 5513 eligible patients, 176 patients developed a contralateral breast cancer. The ER status of the primary and contralateral tumor was determined and cross-classified for women who did not receive tamoxifen (i.e., those aged 49 years or younger) and for women who did (i.e., those aged 50 years or older). ER data were available for 110 evaluable invasive contralateral breast cancers. Results: Among patients who did not receive tamoxifen (n = 62), 89% with an ER-positive primary cancer had an ER-positive contralateral breast cancer and 70% with an ER-negative primary breast cancer had an ER-negative contralateral breast cancer (odds ratio for the association between primary and contralateral ER status = 14.8, 95% confidence interval = 3.8 to 74.3; P

Background: Obesity is associated with both increased breast cancer risk and poorer prognosis after disease onset. However, little is known about the effect of obesity on treatment efficacy. We evaluated the association of obesity with outcomes and with tamoxifen efficacy in women with early-stage, hormone-responsive breast cancer participating in a multicenter cancer cooperative group clinical trial. Methods: The cohort consisted of 3385 women enrolled in National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) protocol B-14, a randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluating tamoxifen for lymph node-negative, estrogen receptor (ER)--positive breast cancer. Hazards of breast cancer recurrence, contralateral breast tumors, other new primary cancers, and several mortality endpoints were evaluated in relation to body mass index (BMI), using statistical modeling to adjust for other prognostic factors. Median follow-up time was 166 months. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: The hazard of breast cancer recurrence was the same among obese (BMI [greater than or equal to]30.0 kg/[m.sup.2]) women as compared with underweight and normal-weight women (BMI

Background: In 1998 the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) demonstrated that tamoxifen treatment reduced the incidence of both invasive and noninvasive breast cancer in women at high risk for the disease. We examined the effect of tamoxifen treatment on the incidence of benign breast disease and the number of breast biopsies in the same group of women. Methods: We examined the medical records of 13 203 women with follow-up who participated in the NSABP Breast Cancer Prevention Trial. Included in this analysis were women who had undergone a breast biopsy and who had histologic diagnoses of adenosis, cyst, duct ectasia, fibrocystic disease, fibroadenoma, fibrosis, hyperplasia, or metaplasia. The relative risk (RR) for each histologic diagnosis was estimated for women who received tamoxifen and for women who received placebo. We also tallied the number of biopsies that women in the placebo and tamoxifen groups underwent. Results: Overall, tamoxifen treatment reduced the risk of benign breast disease by 28% (RR = 0.72, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.65 to 0.79). Tamoxifen therapy resulted in statistically significant reductions in the risk of adenosis (RR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.47 to 0.73), cyst (RR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.58 to 0.75), duct ectasia (RR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.53 to 0.97), fibrocystic disease (RR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.58 to 0.77), hyperplasia (RR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.50 to 0.71), and metaplasia (RR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.41 to 0.62). Tamoxifen therapy also reduced the risk for fibroadenoma (RR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.56 to 1.04) and fibrosis (RR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.72 to 1.03). Compared with the placebo group, the tamoxifen group had 29% (95% CI = 23% to 34%) fewer biopsies (1048 versus 1469) and 19% fewer women who underwent a biopsy (811 versus 1019). This resulted in a 29% reduction in the risk of biopsy in women treated with tamoxifen (RR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.66 to 0.77). This risk reduction occurred predominantly in women younger than 50 years. Conclusion: Women in this study who received tamoxifen, especially younger women (i.e.,

National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) Protocol B-18 was initiated in 1988 to determine whether four cycles of doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide given preoperatively improve survival and disease-free survival (DFS) when compared with the same chemotherapy given postoperatively. Secondary aims included the evaluation of preoperative chemotherapy in downstaging the primary breast tumor and involved axillary lymph nodes, the comparison of lumpectomy rates and rates of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) in the two treatment groups, and the assessment of the correlation between primary tumor response and outcome. Initially published findings were based on a follow-up of 5 years; this report updates results through 9 years of follow-up. There continue to be no statistically significant overall differences in survival or DFS between the two treatment groups. Survival at 9 years is 70% in the postoperative group and 69% in the preoperative group (P = .80). DFS is 53% in postoperative patients and 55% in preoperative patients (P = .50). A statistically significant correlation persists between primary tumor response and outcome, and this correlation has become statistically stronger with longer follow-up. Patients assigned to preoperative chemotherapy received notably more lumpectomies than postoperative patients, especially among patients with tumors greater than 5 cm at study entry. Although the rate of IBTR was slightly higher in the preoperative group (10.7% versus 7.6%), this difference was not statistically significant. Marginally statistically significant treatment-by-age interactions appear to be emerging for survival and DFS, suggesting that younger patients may benefit from preoperative therapy, whereas the reverse may be true for older patients. [J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 2001;30:96-102]

Before 1989, credible information about the treatment of breast cancer was derived mainly from randomized clinical trials that enrolled women with either metastatic (stage IV); locally advanced (stage III); or primary, operable, axillary lymph node-positive (stage II) disease. This report provides information from six recent National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) trials involving lymph node-negative (stage I) patients. Findings from NSABP B-13 demonstrated, through 14 years of follow-up, improvements in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival from methotrexate and fluorouracil (MF), regardless of age, in women with estrogen receptor (ER)-negative tumors. Results from NSABP B-19, which was conducted with similar patients, demonstrated, through 8 years, a greater overall DFS and survival advantage with cyclophosphamide and MF (CMF) than that observed with MF. Findings from NSABP B-23, in which patients similar to those in B-13 and B-19 were randomly assigned to receive CMF plus placebo, CMF plus tamoxifen (TAM), doxorubicin (Adriamycin) and cyclophosphamide (AC) plus placebo, or AC plus TAM, demonstrated no difference in relapse-free survival (RFS) or overall survival among the four groups through 5 years, either for all patients or relative to age. NSABP B-14, which was carried out in women with ER-positive tumors, compared the outcomes of those who received either placebo or TAM. Through 14 years, superior DFS and overall survival advantages, as well as a reduction in contralateral breast cancer, were observed with TAM. No additional benefit resulted from TAM administration beyond 5 years. Findings from NSABP B-20, a second study conducted in patients with ER-positive tumors, showed, after 8 years, both a DFS and an overall survival advantage from TAM plus either MF or CMF over that achieved with TAM alone. A recent meta-analysis in women with negative lymph nodes and either ER-negative or ER-positive tumors of less than or equal to 1 cm in size was conducted using patients from five NSABP trials. After 8 years, the RFS in women with ER-negative tumors was greater in the group treated with surgery and chemotherapy than in those who underwent surgery alone. In women with ER-positive tumors, RFS and overall survival advantages were observed from the addition of chemotherapy to TAM when that treatment regimen was compared with TAM alone. In addition, evidence has been presented from NSABP B-21, a trial evaluating radiation therapy (XRT) and/or TAM for the prevention of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) after lumpectomy in women with tumors less than or equal to 1 cm. Findings have shown that XRT is superior to TAM and that XRT + TAM is superior to XRT alone for preventing IBTR. The findings demonstrate that chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy is effective for the management of women with negative axillary lymph nodes and either ER-negative or ER-positive tumors. Because it also has been proven effective in women with tumors less than or equal to 1 cm, such therapy might also be considered in the treatment of that patient population. [J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 2001;30:62-6]

The benefit of using adjuvant tamoxifen to treat breast cancer has been firmly established for patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive tumors, regardless of age, lymph node status, or menopausal status. Uncertainty remains, however, regarding the optimal duration of tamoxifen therapy. We reviewed the findings of randomized clinical trials that directly compared alternative treatment durations. Trials comparing short-term adjuvant treatment with tamoxifen (i.e., 1-3 years) with treatments having durations of about 5 years consistently have demonstrated additional benefits stemming from the longer therapy. Trials testing 5 years of treatment with longer durations have, in the aggregate, suggested no additional benefit for the patient. Nevertheless, the number of recurrences reported to date in these trials is not large, and the results of the individual trials are heterogeneous. Furthermore, as a result of tamoxifen's 'carryover' effect, duration trials require considerable follow-up before definitive results can be established. Until more definitive data become available, adjuvant treatment with tamoxifen should be limited to 5 years outside the clinical trials setting. Continued accrual of ER-positive patients to ongoing tamoxifen duration trials, including the Adjuvant Tamoxifen Treatment Offer More (aTTom) and Adjuvant Tamoxifen Longer Against Shorter (ATLAS) trials, is appropriate. Alternatively, patients who remain disease free after 5 years of tamoxifen therapy should be encouraged to participate in trials testing crossover to other hormonal interventions, including selective ER modulators or aromatase inhibitors. [J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 2001;30:56-61]

Background: Overexpression of the erbB-2 protein by breast cancer cells has been suggested to be a predictor of response to doxorubicin. A retrospective study was designed to test this hypothesis. Methods: In National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project protocol B-II, patients with axillary lymph node-positive, hormone receptor-negative breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive either L-phenylalanine mustard plus 5-fiuorouracil (PF) or a combination of L-phenylalanine mustard, 5-fiuorouracil, and doxorubicin (PAF). Tumor cell expression of erbB-2 was determined by immunohistochemistry for 638 of 682 eligible patients. Statistical analyses were performed to test for interaction between treatment and erbB-2 status (positive versus negative) with respect to disease-free survival (DFS), survival, recurrence-free survival (RFS), and distant disease-free survival (DDFS). Reported P values are two-sided. Results: Overexpression of erbB-2 (i.e., positive immunohistochemical staining) was observed in 239 (37.5%) of the 638 tumors studied. Overexpression was associated with tumor size (P = .02), lack of estrogen receptors (P = .008), and the number of positive lymph nodes (P = .0001). After a mean time on study of 13.5 years, the clinical benefit from doxorubicin (PAF versus PF) was statistically significant for patients with erbB-2-positive tumors--DFS: relative risk of failure (RR) = 0.60 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.44-0.83), P = .001; survival: RR = 0.66 (95% CI = 0.47-0.92), P = .01; RFS: RR = 0.58 (95% CI = 0.42-0.82), P = .002; DDFS: RR = 0.61 (95% CI = 0.44-0.85), P = .003. However, it was not significant for patients with erbB-2-negative tumors--DFS: RR = 0.96 (95% CI = 0.75-1.23), P = .74; survival: RR = 0.90 (95% CI = 0.69-1.19), P = .47; RFS: RR = 0.88 (95% CI - 0.67-1.16), P = .37; DDFS: RR = 1.03 (95% CI = 0.79-1.35), P = .84. Interaction between doxorubicin treatment and erbB-2 overexpression was statistically significant for DFS (P = .02) and DDFS (P = .02) but not for survival (P = .15) or RFS (P = .06). Conclusions: These data support the hypothesis of a preferential benefit from doxorubicin in patients with erbB-2-positive breast cancer. [J Natl Cancer Inst 1998;90:1361-70]

Background: The finding of a decrease in contralateral breast cancer incidence following tamoxifen administration for adjuvant therapy led to the concept that the drug might play a role in breast cancer prevention. To test this hypothesis, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project initiated the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (P-1) in 1992. Methods: Women (N = 13388) at increased risk for breast cancer because they 1) were 60 years of age or older, 2) were 35-59 years of age with a 5-year predicted risk for breast cancer of at least 1.66%, or 3) had a history of lobular carcinoma in situ were randomly assigned to receive placebo (n = 6707) or 20 mg/day tamoxifen (n = 6681) for 5 years. Gail's algorithm, based on a multivariate logistic regression model using combinations of risk factors, was used to estimate the probability (risk) of occurrence of breast cancer over time. Results: Tamoxifen reduced the risk of invasive breast cancer by 49% (two-sided P [is less than] .00001), with cumulative incidence through 69 months of follow-up of 43.4 versus 22.0 per 1000 women in the placebo and tamoxifen groups, respectively. The decreased risk occurred in women aged 49 years or younger (44%), 50-59 years (51%), and 60 years or older (55%); risk was also reduced in women with a history of lobular carcinoma in situ (56%) or atypical hyperplasia (86%) and in those with any category of predicted 5-year risk. Tamoxifen reduced the risk of noninvasive breast cancer by 50% (two-sided P [is less than] .002). Tamoxifen reduced the occurrence of estrogen receptor-positive tumors by 69%, but no difference in the occurrence of estrogen receptor-negative tumors was seen. Tamoxifen administration did not alter the average annual rate of ischemic heart disease; however, a reduction in hip, radius (Colles'), and spine fractures was observed. The rate of endometrial cancer was increased in the tamoxifen group (risk ratio = 2.53; 95% confidence interval = 1.35-4.97); this increased risk occurred predominantly in women aged 50 years or older. All endometrial cancers in the tamoxifen group were stage I (localized disease); no endometrial cancer deaths have occurred in this group. No liver cancers or increase in colon, rectal, ovarian, or other tumors was observed in the tamoxifen group. The rates of stroke, pulmonary embolism, and deep-vein thrombosis were elevated in the tamoxifen group; these events occurred more frequently in women aged 50 years or older. Conclusions: Tamoxifen decreases the incidence of invasive and noninvasive breast cancer. Despite side effects resulting from administration of tamoxifen, its use as a breast cancer preventive agent is appropriate in many women at increased risk for the disease. [J Natl Cancer Inst 1998;90:1371-88]

Background: The B-20 study of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) was conducted to determine whether chemotherapy plus tamoxifen would be of greater benefit than tamexifen alone in the treatment of patients with axillary lymph node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. Methods: Eligible patients (n = 2306) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups following surgery. A total of 771 patients with follow-up data received tamexifen alone; 767 received methotrexate, fluorouracil, and tamexifen (MFT); and 768 received cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, fluorouracil, and tamoxifen (CMFT). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate disease-free survival, distant disease-free survival, and survival. Reported P values are two-sided. Results: Through 5 years of follow-up, chemotherapy plus tamoxifen resulted in significantly better disease-free survival than tamoxifen alone (90% for MFT versus 85% for tamexifen [P = .01]; 89% for CMFT versus 85% for tamexifen [P = .001]). A similar benefit was observed in both distant disease-free survival (92% for MFT versus 87% for tamexifen [P = .008]; 91% for CMFT versus 87% for tamoxifen [P = .006]) and survival (97% for MFT versus 94% for tamexifen [P = .05]; 96% for CMFT versus 94% for tamexifen [P = .03]). Compared with tamexifen alone, MFT and CMFT reduced the risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence after lumpectomy and the risk of recurrence at other local, regional, and distant sites. Risk of treatment failure was reduced after both types of chemotherapy, regardless of tumor size, tumor estrogen or progesterone receptor level, or patient age; however, the reduction was greatest in patients aged 49 years or less. No subgroup of patients evaluated in this study failed to benefit from chemotherapy. Conclusions: Findings from this and other NSABP studies indicate that patients with breast cancer who meet NSABP protocol criteria, regardless of age, lymph node status, tumor size, or estrogen receptor status, are candidates for chemotherapy. [J. Natl Cancer Inst 1997;89:1673-82]

Background and Purpose: Data from randomized clinical trials in Scotland and Sweden testing the efficacy of tamoxifen therapy in patients with breast cancer have suggested that the drug may also reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. In view of these findings, we examined mortality from coronary heart disease among patients with early stage breast cancer who were enrolled in the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project B-14 trial of tamoxifen therapy. Methods: Deaths occurring among women who were randomly assigned to 5 years of either tamoxifen or placebo in the first phase of the B-14 trial were reviewed to determine the cause. Three categories of heart disease-related death were defined: 1) death from a definite fatal myocardial infarction, 2) death from definite fatal coronary heart disease/possible myocardial infarction, and 3) death from possible fatal coronary heart disease. Comparisons of the findings by treatment group were made on the basis of average annual hazard (i.e., death) rates and the corresponding relative hazard of death. Results: The average annual death rate from coronary heart disease was lower for patients who received tamoxifen than for patients who received placebo, but the difference was not statistically significant. There were eight definite heart-related deaths (i.e., definite fatal myocardial infarction or definite fatal coronary heart disease/possible myocardial infarction) among the patients who received tamoxifen, yielding an average annual rate of 0.62 per 1000 patients. There were 12 definite heart-related deaths among the patients who received placebo, yielding an average annual rate of 0.94 per 1000. The corresponding relative hazard of death from definite fatal heart disease (tamoxifen versus placebo) was 0.66 (95% confidence interval = 0.27-1.61). Eleven deaths in the tamoxifen group and 10 deaths in the placebo group were classified as possible cases of fatal coronary heart disease. When these cases and the definite cases were considered together, the average annual death rate for the patients who received tamoxifen was 1.48 per 1000, and the rate for the patients who received placebo was 1.73 per 1000. The corresponding relative hazard of death was 0.85 (95 % confidence interval = 0.46-1.58). Conclusions: The findings from the B-14 trial are consistent with the findings from the Scottish and the Swedish trials, suggesting that tamoxifen treatment reduces coronary heart disease among patients with breast cancer. Continued follow-up of the patients in these trials and in ongoing prevention trials is needed to accumulate enough data so that reliable conclusions can be drawn about the benefits of tamoxifen in preventing heart disease.

Background: In 19X2, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project initiated a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial (B-14) to determine the effectiveness of adjuvant tamoxifen therapy in patients with primary operable breast cancer who had estrogen receptor-positive tumors and no axillary lymph node involvement. The findings indicated that tamexifen therapy provided substantial benefit to patients with early stage disease. However, questions arose about how long the observed benefit would persist, about the duration of therapy necessary to maintain maximum benefit, and about the nature and severity of adverse effects from prolonged treatment. Purpose: We evaluated the outcome of patients in the B14 trial through 10 years of follow-up. In addition, the effects of 5 years versus more than 5 years of tamoxifen therapy were compared. Methods: In the trial, patients were initially assigned to receive either tamoxifen at 20 mg/day (n = 1404) or placebo (n = 1414). Tamoxifen-treated patients who remained disease free after 5 years of therapy were then reassigned to receive either another 5 years of tamoxifen (n = 322) or 5 years of placebo (n = 321). After the study began, another group of patients who met the same protocol eligibility requirements as the randomly assigned patients were registered to receive tamoxifen (n = 1211). Registered patients who were disease free after 5 years of treatment were also randomly assigned to another 5 years of tamoxifen (n = 261) or to 5 years of placebo (n = 249). To compare 5 years with more=than 5 years of tamoxifen therapy, data relating to all patients reassigned to an additional 5 years of the drug were combined. Patients who were not reassigned to either tamoxifen or placebo continued to tee followed in the study. Survival, disease-free survival, and distant disease-free survival (relating to failure at distant sites) were estimated by use of the Kaplan-Meier method; differences between the treatment groups were assessed by use of the logrank test. The relative risks of failure (with 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) were determined by use of the Cox proportional hazards model. Reported P values are two-sided. Results: Through 10 years of follow-up, a significant advantage in disease-free survival (69% versus 57%, P

Background: The Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT) is a large, multicenter chemporevention trial testing the efficacy of the antiestrogen drug tamoxifen for prevention of breast cancer and coronary heart disease in healthy women at high risk of breast cancer. The BCPT evolved from a series of prior studies in early stage breast cancer demonstrating the efficacy of tamoxifen in the prevention of systemic breast cancer recurrence and in the reduction of contralateral breast cancers. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe the methodologic considerations in the collection of health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) data in the BCPT and to present base-line HRQL data on the first 9749 participants. Methods: An HRQL questionnaire that included the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, a symptom checklist, the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item short form (MOS-SF-36), and the MOS sexual problems questions was completed by participants in the BCPT at base line (prior to random assignment). Medical and demographic information, as well as projected risk of breast cancer, were collected as part of study eligibility. Descriptive and correlational data were examined for these study participants. Results: BCPT participants report high levels of functioning compared with U.S. general population norms but still report an average of 8.9 distinct symptoms during the past 4 weeks. Depression is less prevalent among the participants than in community samples, which reflects the exclusion of clinically depressed individuals. Sixty-five percent reported being sexually active in the past 6 months, with an age-related decline in sexual activity. Younger women reported fewer sexual problems than older women. There is a strong correlation between the two mental health measures, moderate to weak correlations between HRQL scales and levels of self-reported symptoms, and only weak correlations between measures of breast cancer risk and HRQL scales. The MOS-SF-36 scores were examined for three consecutive recruitment samples (0-6 months, 7-12 months, and 13-20 months), and the base-line scores were slightly better for the earliest group of participants. Conclusions: This article demonstrates the feasibility of collecting HRQL data in a large, multicenter, chemoprevention trial for women at high risk of breast cancer. The successful integration of HRQL data collection into this clinical trial attests to its value as a safety-monitoring end point and as an explicit and measurable outcome for the entire trial. Implications: HRQL data are important for studies in which healthy populations are involved and in which the potential for decrements in quality of life are real or perceived.

Background: Tamoxifen is advantageous in treating all stages of breast cancer. However, studies have suggested that incidence and severity of endometrial cancer increase in women treated with tamoxifen. Purpose: We compared rates of endometrial and other cancers in tamoxifen- and nontamoxifen-treated patients and described the pathologic characteristics of the endometrial cancers. Methods: Data were analyzed on 2843 patients with node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive, invasive breast cancer randomly assigned to placebo or tamoxifen (20 mg/d) and on 1220 tamoxifen-treated patients registered in NSABP B-14 subsequent to randomization. Average time on study is 8 years for randomly assigned patients and 5 years for registered patients. Results: The incidence rates of liver, gastrointestinal, urinary tract, and nonuterine genital tumors were not increased by tamoxifen treatment. Twenty-five endometrial cancers were originally reported, one of which was reclasified after subsequent review. Two cases occurred in the placebo group in patients whose medical status subsequent to random assignment had required tamoxifen treatment. Twenty-three occurred in the tamoxifen groups. Twenty-one of the 24 originally reported endometrial cancers were FIGO stage 1; 18 of 23 gradable cases were of good to moderate histologic grade. Four tamoxifen-treated women died of uterine cancer. The average annual hazard rate of endometrial cancer as a first event within the first 5 years of follow-up in the randomized, tamoxifen-treated group was 1.2/1000 patient-years; the cumulative hazard rate was 6.3/1000. Findings for the registered, tamoxifen-treated group were similar. Including all originally reported endometrial cancers, the annual hazard rate through all follow-up was 0.2/1000 in the placebo group and 1.6/1000 in the randomized, tamoxifen-treated group; the relative risk of endometrial cancer for the latter versus the former group was 7.5. Again for the latter group, using population-based rates of endometrial cancer from SEER data and information from another NSABP (B-06) trial, relative risks were 2.2 and 2.3, respectively. The 5-year cumulative hazard rate for disease-free survival in the randomized tamoxifen group was 38% less than that in the placebo group. Some data in this paper were provided by an investigator who submitted fraudulent data to the NSABP [see the 'News' section]; therefore, the reader must read the entire text including Table 10 and the Editor's notes. In brief, data on 182 of the 2843 randomly assigned patients and 37 of the 1220 registered patients were provided by the investigator in question. After review, 24 of the 182 records showed falsification, all involving characteristics of patients prior to random assignment. Of the 37 registered-patient records, 8 showed falsification. Conclusions: Risk of endometrial cancer increases following tamoxifen therapy for invasive breast cancer; however, net benefit greatly outweighs risk. Endometrial cancers occurring after tamoxifen therapy do not appear to be of a different type with a worse prognosis than are such tumors in non-tamoxifen-treated patients. Implications: Tamoxifen treatment for breast cancer should continue. In addition, the relative risk of endometrial cancer observed in B-14 tamoxifen-treated patients is consistent with the twofold relative risk used in the initial risk-benefit computation for the NSABP breast cancer prevention trial.

Background. Prognostic pathologic and clinical features for 10-year survival were determined from 22 pathologic and 5 clinical variables encountered in 1090 node-negative and 651 node-positive patients enrolled in NSABP protocol B-06. Methods. All factors were first screened univariately. Those exhibiting P values < 0.01 were entered into multivariate Cox regression models. The model with the best fit consisted of 951 negative-node and 496 node-positive patients. Results. Better survival in node-negative patients was noted for whites rather than blacks, for patients with favorable tumor types (tubular, mucinous, papillary) rather than intermediate (lobular invasive, classical medullary, and not otherwise specified [NOS] combinations) or unfavorable forms (NOS pure and atypical medullary), and for tumors with good rather than poor nuclear grade. Number of nodal metastases, degree of tumor elastosis, and patient age younger than 40 years of age and 65 years of age and older in addition to nuclear grade and race were found significant for node-positive patients. Relative risks for combinations of these prognostic factors were multiplicative. Conclusions. The prognostic factors for node-negative patients were similar to those observed for this cohort at 8 years. Some differences noted between patients of both nodal groups in NSABP B-04 and B-06 may be related to selection requirements in the latter and hence different patient characteristics or more speculatively a change in tumor biology. Cancer 1993; 71:2507-14.

Twenty-one pathologic and five clinical features of Stage I and II invasive breast cancers from 620 patients enrolled in National Surgical Adjuvant Breast Project Protocol B-04 were analyzed to determine their predictive value for 15-year survival. Ten pathologic features had a statistically significant univariate prognostic relationship with long-term survival. These were analyzed further using a Cox regression model that found only the number of nodal metastases (0, 1-3, 4-9, or 10+), tumor size ([is less than or equal to] 2.0 cm versus 2.1-4 and 4.1 + cm), and the presence or absence of nipple involvement to be significant independent prognostic discriminants. Combinations of these three characteristics modestly increased their individual prognostic value. Differences in the findings in this study from those observed in the same patient population at 5 and 10 postoperative years and their relationship to other markers detected by ancillary pathologic techniques briefly are discussed. Cancer 1993; 71:2141-50.

Despite the generally favorable prognosis for breast cancer diagnosed in early stages, some patients will experience relapse. Adjuvant chemotherapy may help reduce the likelihood of relapse, but it is uncertain whether the gain in preventing relapse for a few outweighs the problems of giving chemotherapy to many women who do not need it. Ideally, it would be possible to identify the women at greatest risk for relapse and provide only them with the needed adjuvant therapy. To learn more about the factors affecting the risk of relapse, measurements were made of the DNA content of cells from breast cancers of 398 patients. The ploidy of the cancer cells, which indicates whether the cell chromosome complement is normal or abnormal, was determined. Also determined was the fraction of cells in S phase. (In S phase, cells are synthesizing DNA; the S-phase fraction provides a estimate of how actively cells are proliferating.) The results of the DNA measurements indicated that while the cancers with a normal chromosome complement (diploid) were also more likely to be of lower grade, the overall survival of these patients was no different from those patients with aneuploid cancers, or cancers with an abnormal number of chromosomes. However, when the S-phase fraction was compared, it was found that the patients with a low S-phase fraction had about a 14 percent better survival at 10 years. After other known risk factors were adjusted for, patients with low S-phase fraction (that is, less proliferation of their cancer cells) still had a 10 percent better survival. Although the S-phase fraction proved to be an independent predictor of survival, it is not a sufficiently good predictor of survival to be useful in determining the best treatment for breast cancer patients. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) began in 1958 to conduct studies examining the therapy and biology of breast cancer. The results of these studies have helped to improve the management of breast cancer. The clinical findings and biological relevance of these studies and their relation to breast cancer treatment are reviewed. In addition, the studies currently in progress are discussed. Specific issues include the local-regional management of invasive breast cancer, the management of noninvasive breast cancer, postoperative systemic therapy, and preoperative systemic therapy. After two decades, physicians and patients are beginning to recognize the contributions of clinical trials and accept their findings. Although the clinical trial approach is not flawless, it provides a method for solving problems, testing hypotheses, and studying biological aspects, and is an alternative to the past case-reporting method. Future objectives include the enrollment of more patients in sophisticated, biologically oriented clinical trials and participation of more pathologists and laboratory investigators in such studies. Pathologists and laboratory investigators could contribute tumor specimens and other patient materials that are obtained for use in diagnosis. Other goals of future studies are to identify patients who need therapy and to develop a treatment regimen that is effective in all patients regardless of differences in factors that influence the outcome of breast cancer, such as age, extent of lymph node involvement, and number of tumor receptors, or attachment sites on the cells. A combined treatment method would eliminate the need to classify patients into separate subgroups, and thereby remove the uncertainties concerning patient management. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Most cancers are staged according to the degree of spread that the tumor has achieved. Stage I breast cancer shows no signs of systemic involvement and no signs of cancer in the lymph nodes of the armpit. The survival of Stage I patients is better than those with Stage II, where the lymph nodes have become involved. Seventy percent of Stage I patients are likely to survive for 10 years. The general perception of this as a relatively good prognosis has, unfortunately, led to a paucity of data concerning the best management of these patients; many published studies focus their efforts on more advanced stages with worse prognoses. An analysis of 950 cases of invasive breast cancer without node involvement found that not all subsets of Stage I patients fare equally well. It was found that patients with a good nuclear grade fared better, with an 86 percent 8-year survival, than did patients with a poor nuclear grade, who achieved a 64 percent survival at 8 years. (Nuclear grade is a measure of cell differentiation by examination of the uptake of thymidine, and thus of extent of metastasis.) The histological type of the tumor was also a significant prognostic factor. Race was significant, with blacks faring worse than whites. Blacks had an overall 8-year survival of 64 percent, compared with a 79 percent overall 8-year survival for whites. Unfortunately, there were too few blacks among the patient population to clarify this difference further. Although adjuvant chemotherapy is sometimes felt to be unnecessary, due to the favorable overall prognosis of patients with Stage I breast cancer, it should be considered for those patients who have some other factor associated with a less-than-optimal risk. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Background: Previously reported information from B-14, a National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, demonstrated that patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer and negative axillary lymph nodes experienced a prolonged benefit from 5 years of tamoxifen therapy. When these women were rerandomized to receive either placebo or more prolonged tamoxifen therapy, they obtained no additional advantage from tamoxifen through 4 years of follow-up. Because the optimal duration of tamoxifen administration continues to be controversial and because there have been 3 more years of follow-up and a substantial increase in the number of events since our last report, an update of the B-14 study is appropriate. Methods: Patients (n = 1172) who had completed 5 years of tamoxifen therapy and who were disease free were rerandomized to receive placebo (n = 579) or tamoxifen (n = 593). Survival, disease-free survival (DFS), and relapse-free survival (RFS) were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method; the differences between the treatment groups were assessed by the log-rank test. Relative risks of failure (with 95% confidence intervals) were determined by the Cox proportional hazards model. P values were two-sided. Results: Through 7 years after reassignment of tamoxifen-treated patients to either placebo or continued tamoxifen therapy, a slight advantage was observed in patients who discontinued tamoxifen relative to those who continued to receive it: DFS = 82% versus 78% (P = .03), RFS = 94% versus 92% (P = .13), and survival = 94% versus 91% (P = .07), respectively. The lack of benefit from additional tamoxifen therapy was independent of age or other characteristics. Conclusion: Through 7 years of follow-up after rerandomization, there continues to be no additional benefit from tamoxifen administered beyond 5 years in women with ER-positive breast cancer and negative axillary lymph nodes. [J Natl Cancer Inst 2001;93: 684-90]

Background: Uncertainty about prognosis and treatment of axillary lymph node-negative patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-negative or ER-positive invasive breast tumors of 1 cm or less prompted the analysis of data from five National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project randomized clinical trials. Methods: Two hundred thirty-five patients with ER-negative tumors and 1024 patients with ER-positive tumors were identified in these trials. Patients with ER-negative tumors received surgery alone or surgery and chemotherapy. Patients with ER-positive tumors received surgery alone; surgery and tamoxifen; or surgery, tamoxifen, and chemotherapy. End points were relapse-free survival (RFS), event-free survival, and overall survival. A result was considered to be statistically significant with a P value of .05 or less; all statistical tests were two-sided. Results: The 8-year RFS of women with ER-negative tumors who received surgery alone or with chemotherapy was 81% and 90%, respectively (P = .06). Survival was similar in both groups (93% and 91%; P = .65). The 8-year RFS of women with ER-positive tumors was 86 % after surgery alone, 93 % when tamoxifen was added (P = .01), and 95% after the addition of tamoxifen and chemotherapy (P = .07 compared with tamoxifen). Survival in the three groups was 90%, 92 % (P = .41), and 97%, respectively. The difference between the latter two groups was significant (P = .01). Regardless of ER status or treatment, overall mortality was 8%; one half of the deaths were related to breast cancer. Several covariates affected the risk of recurrence in ER-negative and ER-positive patients. Risk was greater in women with tumors of 1 cm than in those with tumors of less than 1 cm, in women aged 49 years or younger than in those aged 50 years or older, and in women with infiltrating ductal or lobular carcinoma than in those with other histologic tumor types. Conclusions: Chemotherapy and/or tamoxifen should be considered for the treatment of women with ER-negative or ER-positive tumors of 1 cm or less and negative axillary lymph nodes. [J Natl Cancer Inst 2001;93:112-20]

Background: The conviction that postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy represent an acceptable standard of care for patients with Dukes' B (stage II) and Dukes' C (stage III) carcinoma of the rectum evolved in the absence of data from clinical trials designed to determine whether the addition of radiotherapy results in improved disease-free survival and overall survival. This study was carried out to address this issue. An additional aim was to determine whether leucovorin (LV)-modulated 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is superior to the combination of 5-FU, semustine, and vincristine (MOF) in men. Patients and Methods: Eligible patients (n = 694) with Dukes' B or C carcinoma of the rectum were enrolled in National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) Protocol R-02 from September 1987 through December 1992 and were followed. They were randomly assigned to receive either postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy alone (n = 348) or chemotherapy with postoperative radiotherapy (n = 346). All female patients (n = 287) received 5-FU plus LV chemotherapy; male patients received either MOF (n = 207) or 5-FU plus LV (n = 200). Primary analyses were carried out by use of a stratified log-rank statistic; P values are two-sided. Results: The average time on study for surviving patients is 93 months as of September 30, 1998. Postoperative radiotherapy resulted in no beneficial effect on disease-free survival (P = .90) or overall survival (P = .89), regardless of which chemotherapy was utilized, although it reduced the cumulative incidence of locoregional relapse from 13% to 8% at 5-year follow-up (P = .02). Male patients who received 5-FU plus LV demonstrated a statistically significant benefit in disease-free survival at 5 years compared with those who received MOF (55% versus 47%; P = .009) but not in 5-year overall survival (65% versus 62%; P = .17). Conclusions: The addition of postoperative radiation therapy to chemotherapy in Dukes' B and C rectal cancer did not alter the subsequent incidence of distant disease, although there was a reduction in locoregional relapse when compared with chemotherapy alone. [J Natl Cancer Inst 2000;92:388-96]

Cancer staging takes into account the type of cancer cell, how far it has invaded the local tissues, the amount of lymph nodes involved and the degree of cancer spread (metastasis). This information can be used to predict disease prognosis and determine treatment modalities. The Dukes' classification system is used to stage cancers of the colon and rectum. However, there is some variability and confusion regarding the criteria used for staging. The relative prognostic value of using this type of classification system was compared to TNM (tumor, nodes and metastasis) and Astler and Coller staging systems, a method which subdivides the staging further. The three systems were used to evaluate 745 patients with rectal cancer. All the systems were interrelated and provided sufficient information for predicting the prognosis of colorectal cancer. However, TNM did not provide any additional value over the Dukes method. The Dukes' method of colorectal cancer staging is the simplest method of determining disease prognosis. The incorporation of the C staging of the Coller method would enhance the value of this tool. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Two clinical trials studying patients with node-negative breast cancer were performed by the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project. Prognosis was evaluated for women who had systemic therapy (chemotherapy) as a follow-up to initial surgery for primary operable breast cancers where no additional cancer was detected in adjacent node areas. They were compared with similar patients who received no follow-up treatment. The first trial consisted of 731 women with estrogen-receptor-negative tumor types (tumors that do not react to estrogen). These patients were subdivided; one group was treated with a sequential chemotherapy program and the other group was given no therapy. The second trial consisted of 2,834 women that had been diagnosed with estrogen-receptor-positive tumors (tumors that react and thrive in the presence of estrogen). This group was similarly subdivided; approximately half received follow-up chemotherapy and the other half did not. All subjects were monitored for four years and the percentage of women who survived without disease was evaluated. The disease-free survival rates of women who had estrogen-receptor-negative tumors was 71 percent; disease-free survival rates for those who had estrogen-receptor-positive tumors was 77 percent. Because of the similarity of the survival rates in the two groups, it was concluded that no significant differences in mortality or overall prognosis occurred due to tumor type. The progress of those individuals who received the systemic treatment did not suggest that any specific type of therapy was better than the others. It was noted that the relatively short follow-up period of four years was not sufficient to fully assess the overall survival rates and the possible benefits that were derived from the treatments. However, it was concluded that the overall survival rates of all women in both trials were low enough to justify using chemotherapy as a follow-up to surgery. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)