Long-Term Adjuvant Therapy with Tamoxifen in Breast Cancer: How Long Is Long?

Excerpt

The article by Fisher and colleagues in this issue ( 1 ) presents data suggesting that long-term adjuvant therapy with the antiestrogen tamoxifen improves the prognosis after surgery for patients with operable node-positive breast cancer. These results were obtained in an extension of their earlier randomized trial that compared a 2-year regimen of Lphenylalanine mustard and fluorouracil with the same regimen plus tamoxifen in patients who had had mastectomy and axillary dissection (2). The addition of tamoxifen in that trial led to a longer time to recurrence.

The study reported in this issue consisted of the evaluation of an additional