Conventional Dose CAF Therapy versus Low Dose Adriamycin Therapy in the Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer.

A controlled randomized trial was conducted to compare the effectiveness of a conventional dose of CAF therapy with that of a low dose of adriamycin (ADR) therapy for the treatment of advanced Breast Cancer. The doses of medication for the conventional CAF therapy were 100 mg/body of cyclophosphamide (CPA) p.o. daily fort wo weeks, 30 mg/m(2) of ADR and 500 mg/m(2) of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) i.v. on days 1 and 8 for induction, and 200 mg/body of 5-FU and 20 mg/body of tamoxifen (TAM) p.o. daily for maintenance. Those for the low dose ADR therapy were 15mg/m(2) of ADR i.v. at two-week intervals for one year and 200 mg/body of 5-FU and 20 mg/body of TAM p.o. daily. Eighty patients were entered in this trial. All patients were randomly divided into two groups with stratification for estrogen receptor status. Of 78 patients among them, 38 undergoing the CAF therapy and 40 undergoing the low dose ADR therapy, were evaluated for efficacy assesment. The background factors analyzed were well balanced in both groups. The response rate was 47%(6CR, 12PR out of 38) in the CAF group and 43% (3CR, 14PR out of 40) in the low dose ADR group. There was no significant difference in response rates and survival rates as determined by the Kaplan Meier method between the two groups. The CAF therapy had significantly more toxicity than the low dose ADR therapy. Therefore, it was concluded that this low dose ADR therapy can be regarded as a treatment of choice for advanced breast cancer.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes