Failure of chemotherapy to prolong survival in a group of patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Overall survival of patients with primary breast cancer has not improved in the past ten years, despite increasing use of multiple-drug chemotherapy for treatment of metastases. Furthermore, there has been no improvement in survival from first metastasis, and survival may even have been shortened in some patients given chemotherapy. Chemotherapy probably does prolong survival in some patients, and further studies should be undertaken to identify these patients in advance.