A clinical trial of homoharringtonine in the treatment of advanced breast cancer.

Two combination chemotherapy protocols, CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, fluorouracil) and CMFH (CMF plus homoharringtonine), were tested in advanced breast cancer patients. The response rate of CMF was 50% in 44 cases, and that of CMFH was 54.16% in 48 cases; the difference was not significant. There was also no difference between the median duration of response and the median survival of the two protocols. It was concluded that the addition of homoharringtonine to the CMF protocol gave no additional benefit.