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Transmitted by Canada NewsWire on : December 17, 2006

Canadian Researchers Find Common Breast Cancer Chemotherapy Regime Inferior at Preventing Disease Recurrence.

AC/T Less Effective than CEF Regime and New Experimental EC/T

SAN ANTONIO, TX, Dec. 17 /CNW/ - A Canadian-led clinical trial has found that a widely-used breast cancer chemotherapy treatment known as AC/T is not as effective at preventing a recurrence of the disease as another commonly-used treatment regime, CEF. The trial also found that AC/T was less effective at preventing breast cancer from recurring than a new experimental treatment regime called EC/T. The CEF regime was developed in Canada.

The findings are being presented today at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio, Texas.

"Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in North America," says Dr. Margot Burnell, one of two lead researchers on the study. "This clinical trial may change the way many of them are treated in the future."

Dr. Barbara Whylie, CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society, says, "We're delighted that these results will lead to better care for women with breast cancer. We eagerly await the final results of this study to see what effect these chemotherapy treatments have on the long-term survival of breast cancer patients."

Funded in part by the Canadian Cancer Society and coordinated by the NCIC Clinical Trials Group, the clinical trial followed 2,104 women in Canada and the United States, all under the age of 60, who had been diagnosed with lymph node-positive or high-risk node-negative breast cancer. The women, who were either pre-menopausal or early post-menopausal, underwent breast surgery before receiving the chemotherapy.

The women were randomly assigned to one of three different six-month, intravenous treatment regimes: AC/T, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel; CEF, a combination of cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and fluorouracil; or EC/T, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel. They were then monitored to determine if the cancer had returned.

After tracking half of the patients for at least 30 months, Dr. Burnell and co-researcher Dr. Mark Levine found that about five per cent more women on AC/T had their cancer come back than women on CEF or EC/T. Specifically, the three-year recurrence-free survival rate was 85 per cent for the patients on AC/T, compared to 90.1 per cent for patients on CEF and 89.5 per cent for those on EC/T.

While the analysis of the trial does show that AC/T is "significantly inferior" to the CEF and EC/T treatment regimes in preventing a recurrence of the disease, Dr. Burnell, an oncologist from Saint John, New Brunswick, says use of AC/T will not likely be totally discontinued.

"Doctors are always weighing the pros and cons to find the best treatment for each individual patient. AC/T may still be the right choice for some patients depending on factors such as their general state of health and how well they tolerate the side effects of different chemotherapy drugs," she says.

For example, patients on AC/T have a higher risk of experiencing neurological side effects, while those on CEF or EC/T may experience more cardiac and blood-related problems.

The study's researchers say it is too early to determine whether CEF is more effective than the experimental treatment, EC/T. It is also premature to say whether overall survival, as opposed to recurrence, is better on any one of the three regimes. Trial participants will continue to be followed for the next two to three years to determine the answers to these questions.

Approximately 40 per cent of women with breast cancer in North America are under the age of 60. Just under half of these women have either node-positive or high-risk node-negative breast cancer.

The NCIC Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG) is based at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. The trial is supported by the Canadian Cancer Society, the U.S. National Cancer Institute, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen, Janssen Ortho and Ortho Biotech.

The Canadian Cancer Society is a national community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is to eradicate cancer and to enhance the quality of life of people living with cancer. It is the largest charitable funder of cancer research in Canada and supports clinical trials through its funding of the NCIC CTG.When you want to know more about cancer, visit our website at www.cancer.ca or call our toll-free, bilingual Cancer Information Service at 1 888 939-3333.