show that chemotherapy provided a statistically significant benefit for patients with ER-negative tumors, but "only a little bit of an effect for ER-positive tumors that had been treated with tamoxifen, and none of the trials showed a statistically significant benefit for higher doses of chemotherapy in ER-positive patients."

Berry says that the results will likely surprise oncologists "because everyone has assumed that ER status doesn't matter in chemotherapy treatment, but here we show it does." That doesn't mean, however, that patients with ER-positive tumors should not receive chemotherapy, Berry warns.

He adds that the study proves that breast cancer patients of both hormonal types are being aided by clinical advances. "The prevailing wisdom has been that science has focused on ER-positive tumors, with development of SERMs and now aromatase inhibitors, but ER-negative patients have been left in the lurch," Berry says. "Not so. This analysis demonstrates that chemotherapy use has more than doubled survival rates in women with ER-negative tumors."

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10-Dec-2004

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