Results of two studies, sponsored by the Adjuvant Breast Cancer (ABC) Trials Collaborative Group, conclude that adding chemotherapy to the estrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen improves survival for those with early-stage breast cancer. The same studies reveal preventing the secretion of estrogen from the ovaries does not offer much benefit for most women.Researchers studied 1991 patients, ages 28 to 81. All had received five years worth of treatment with tamoxifen therapy with or without standard chemotherapy. Some premenopausal women were also treated with ovarian removal (ablation) or suppression, a technique used to stop the glands from secreting hormones.
While early results, appearing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, fell short of statistical significance, chemotherapy still reduced the overall risk of death by 17 percent, mostly for women younger than 50 and especially for premenopausal women not treated with ovarian ablation or suppression.
