TY - JOUR
T1 - Chemoimmunotherapy of advanced breast cancer
T2 - Prolongation of remission and survival with BCG
AU - Gutterman, Jordan U.
AU - Cardenas, Juan O.
AU - Blumenschein, George R.
AU - Hortobagyi, Gabriel
AU - Burgess, Michael A.
AU - Livingston, Robert B.
AU - Mavligit, Giora M.
AU - Freireich, Emil J.
AU - Gottlieb, Jeffrey A.
AU - Hersh, Evan M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by contract N01-CB-33888 and grants 05831 and 11520 from the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20014. Drs Gutterman and Mavligit are in receipt of career development awards (CA 71007-02 and CA 00130-01 respec- tively) from the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
PY - 1976/11
Y1 - 1976/11
N2 - Forty-five patients with disseminated breast cancer were given a trial of combination chemotherapy consisting of fluorouracil, adriamycin, and cyclophosphamide (FAC) and immunotherapy with BCG given by scarification. The results were compared with those in a comparable group of 44 patients treated with FAC alone immediately before the chemoimmunotherapy study. The remission rates (73% and 76% for FAC and FAC-BCG respectively) were similar in both studies. The durations of remission for patients on FAC-BCG (median 12 months) were longer than remissions achieved for patients given FAC alone (median 8 months) (P = 0.068). The most notable effect of BCG was on survival. Thus 21 out of 34 patients achieving remission on FAC-BCG were alive at the time of the last follow-up examination (median over 22 months) compared with 11 out of 32 patients achieving remission on FAC (median 15 months) (P = 0.01). Twenty-six of the 45 patients given FAC-BCG were alive at the time of the last follow-up examination (median over 22 months) compared with 12 of the 44 patients given FAC (median 15 months) (P = 0.005). Although the apparent benefit of BCG could be explained by a maldistribution of some prognostic factors, the data suggest that further trials of chemoimmunotherapy of breast cancer should be carried out.
AB - Forty-five patients with disseminated breast cancer were given a trial of combination chemotherapy consisting of fluorouracil, adriamycin, and cyclophosphamide (FAC) and immunotherapy with BCG given by scarification. The results were compared with those in a comparable group of 44 patients treated with FAC alone immediately before the chemoimmunotherapy study. The remission rates (73% and 76% for FAC and FAC-BCG respectively) were similar in both studies. The durations of remission for patients on FAC-BCG (median 12 months) were longer than remissions achieved for patients given FAC alone (median 8 months) (P = 0.068). The most notable effect of BCG was on survival. Thus 21 out of 34 patients achieving remission on FAC-BCG were alive at the time of the last follow-up examination (median over 22 months) compared with 11 out of 32 patients achieving remission on FAC (median 15 months) (P = 0.01). Twenty-six of the 45 patients given FAC-BCG were alive at the time of the last follow-up examination (median over 22 months) compared with 12 of the 44 patients given FAC (median 15 months) (P = 0.005). Although the apparent benefit of BCG could be explained by a maldistribution of some prognostic factors, the data suggest that further trials of chemoimmunotherapy of breast cancer should be carried out.
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U2 - 10.1136/bmj.2.6046.1222
DO - 10.1136/bmj.2.6046.1222
M3 - Article
C2 - 791447
AN - SCOPUS:17144457942
SN - 0007-1447
VL - 2
SP - 1222
EP - 1225
JO - British Medical Journal
JF - British Medical Journal
IS - 6046
ER -