It comprises approximately 30 percent of all female cancer cases and 16 percent of all female cancer deaths. One in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. In 1960, the risk was one in 14. Detecting small breast cancers with mammography that can be treated with powerful new therapies offers great hope. We are hopeful that this advance will enable physicians to better extend the lives of women battling breast cancer.
Adjuvant chemotherapy is treatment used very soon after surgery, primarily in early stage disease.
In breast cancer, adjuvant chemotherapy is used in addition to surgery with the objective of curing the patient. Adjuvant therapies, including chemotherapy, hormone and radiation therapy, are used either alone or in combination to combat the disease systemically. Other cancer cooperative groups involved in the study were the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, the Southwest Oncology Group and the North Central Cancer Treatment Group, which are all sponsored and supported by the National Cancer Institute. In all, several hundred institutions participated. Prior therapy should have included an anthracyline, unless clinically contraindicated.