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Meeting
Highlights
From:
http://odp.od.nih.gov/consensus/cons/114/114_statement.htm
1.
Which factors should be used to select systemic adjuvant therapy?
2.
For which patients should adjuvant hormonal therapy be recommended?
3.
For which patients should adjuvant chemotherapy be recommended?
4.
For which patients should post-mastectomy radiotherapy be recommended?
5.
How do side effects and quality-of-life issues factor into individual
decision-making about adjuvant therapy?
6.
What are promising new research directions for adjuvant therapy?
Conclusions
Introduction
Each year, more than 180,000 women in the United States are diagnosed
with breast cancer, the most common type of noncutaneous cancer
among women in this country. If current breast cancer rates remain
constant, a woman born today has a one in ten chance of developing
breast cancer.
Because of continuing research into new treatment methods, women
with breast cancer now have more treatment options and a better
chance of long-term survival than ever before. The primary treatment
of localized breast cancer is either breast-conserving surgery
and radiation or mastectomy with or without breast reconstruction.
Systemic adjuvant therapies that are designed to eradicate microscopic
deposits of cancer cells that may have spread or metastasized
from the primary breast cancer have been demonstrated to increase
a woman's chance of long-term survival.
Systemic
adjuvant therapies include chemotherapy (anticancer drugs) and
hormone therapy. In addition to these systemic therapies, radiotherapy
is used in selected cases as a local adjuvant treatment to destroy
breast cancer cells that remain in the chest wall or regional
lymph nodes after mastectomy.
The
rapid pace of discovery in this area continues to expand the knowledge
base from which informed treatment decisions can be made. The
purpose of this conference was to establish a consensus regarding
the use of adjuvant therapy for breast cancer and to communicate
that consensus to clinicians, patients, and the general public.
After reading relevant literature and attending a day and a half
of presentations and audience discussion, an independent, non-Federal
consensus development panel weighed the scientific evidence and
drafted a statement that was presented to the conference audience
on the third day. The consensus development panel's statement
addresses the following key questions:
1. |
Which
factors should be used to select systemic adjuvant therapy?
|
2.
|
For
which patients should adjuvant hormonal therapy be recommended?
|
3. |
For
which patients should adjuvant chemotherapy be recommended?
Which agents should be used, and at what dose or schedule? |
4. |
For
which patients should post-mastectomy radiotherapy be recommended? |
5. |
How
do side effects and quality-of-life issues factor into individual
decision-making about adjuvant therapy? |
6.
|
What
are promising new research directions for adjuvant therapy?
|
This
conference was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and
the NIH Office of Medical Applications of Research. The co-sponsors
included the National Institute of Nursing Research and the NIH
Office of Research on Women's Health.
1.
Which factors should be used to select systemic adjuvant therapy?
The selection of systemic adjuvant therapy is based on prognostic
and predictive factors. Prognostic factors are measurements available
at diagnosis or time of surgery that, in the absence of adjuvant
therapy, are associated with recurrence rate, death rate, or other
clinical outcome. Predictive factors are measurements associated
with the degree of response to a specific therapy. For example,
a demonstration of hormone receptors in tumor cells predicts the
response to hormonal therapy. Any factor has the potential to
be both prognostic and predictive, and a factor's importance depends
on both the clinical endpoint and on the method of treatment comparison.
Prognostic
and predictive factors fall into three categories: patient characteristics
that are independent of the disease (such as age); disease characteristics
(such as tumor size and histologic type); and biomarkers (measurable
parameters in tissues, cells, or fluids), such as hormone receptor
status, progesterone receptor status, and measures of cell turnover.
Accepted prognostic and predictive factors include age, tumor
size, axillary node status, histological tumor type, standardized
pathologic grade, and hormonal-receptor status.
The
median age for the diagnosis of breast cancer is between the ages
of 60 and 65 years. Some younger women (particularly under 35
years) have a more aggressive form of the disease, characterized
by larger tumors of higher grade with vascular invasion. Elderly
women (over 70 years) with breast cancer frequently have hormone
receptor protein in their malignant tissue, suggesting a more
indolent tumor pattern and a high likelihood of response to hormonal
therapy.
Race
appears to be a prognostic but not predictive factor. In contrast
to white women, black breast cancer patients are generally younger,
often have larger tumors at diagnosis, and a smaller percentage
have hormone receptors in their tumor tissue. These factors contribute
to a poorer prognosis. In cases of similar clinical presentation,
however, adjuvant treatment confers similar benefits to black
and white women. Research on the benefits and risks of adjuvant
therapy in Hispanic, Asian, and Native American women is needed.
Novel technologies (such as tissue and expression microarrays
and proteomics) present exciting potential, but their integration
into clinical practice will depend on the proper design and analysis
of clinical investigations. The same is true for overexpression
of HER-2/neu, p53 status, histologic evidence of vascular invasion,
and quantitative parameters of angiogenesis. These have been extensively
studied clinically and biologically, but do not have an established
role in patient management. For example, although overexpression/amplification
of HER-2/neu is associated with an adverse outcome in node-positive
patients and may predict the response to therapy, laboratory methods
and the reporting of results require standardization before its
predictive performance can be established.
The development of immunohistochemical and molecular methods to
identify occult cancer cells (i.e., micrometastases) in histologically
tumor-free axillary lymph nodes or bone marrow has raised questions
as to whether such findings should alter the clinical stage and
become a further indication for systemic adjuvant therapy. At
present, the clinical significance of these findings remains uncertain,
and they require assessment in prospective clinical trials before
they directly alter patient management.
It is essential that the value of predictive and prognostic factors
be evaluated in well-designed clinical studies that are based
on standardized protocols and have sufficient statistical power.
Because these standards are infrequently met, very few new prognostic
or predictive factors have been validated in the last 10 years,
and future progress will depend on greater attention to these
standards. Promising pilot studies should be followed by a validation
phase, during which alternative assays for the biomarker are evaluated
in a head-to-head comparison and prognostic/predictive value is
studied. Since no single study will have sufficient power to properly
evaluate predictive value, results from these trials should be
combined.
2. For which patients
should adjuvant hormonal therapy be recommended?
The
decision whether to recommend adjuvant hormonal therapy should
be based on the presence of hormone receptors, as assessed by
immunohistochemical staining of breast cancer tissue. If the available
tissue is insufficient to determine hormone receptor status, it
should be considered as being positive, particularly in postmenopausal
women. The small subset of women whose tumors lack hormone receptor
protein but contain progesterone receptor also appear to benefit
from hormonal therapy. The presence or absence of HER-2/neu overexpression
should not influence the decision to recommend hormonal therapy.
The
goal of hormonal therapy is to prevent breast cancer cells from
receiving stimulation from estrogen. Such stimulation occurs primarily
in tumors that contain hormone receptor protein. Estrogen deprivation
can be achieved by (a) blocking the receptor through the use of
drugs, such as tamoxifen; (b) suppression of estrogen synthesis
through the administration of aromatase inhibitors (e.g., anastrozole)
in postmenopausal women or LHRH agonists (e.g., goserelin) in
premenopausal women; or (c) destruction of the ovaries through
surgery or external beam radiation therapy. The administration
of cytotoxic chemotherapy may indirectly accomplish this same
effect by damaging estrogen-producing cells in the ovaries.
Adjuvant
hormonal therapy should be recommended to women whose breast tumors
contain hormone receptor protein, regardless of age, menopausal
status, involvement of axillary lymph nodes, or tumor size. While
the likelihood of benefit correlates with the amount of hormone
receptor protein in tumor cells, patients with any extent of hormone
receptor in their tumor cells may still benefit from hormonal
therapy. Such treatment has led to substantial reductions in the
likelihood of tumor recurrence, second primary breast cancer,
and death persisting for at least 15 years of followup. Possible
exceptions to this recommendation include premenopausal women
with tumors less than 10 mm in size who wish to avoid the symptoms
of estrogen deprivation or elderly women with similarly sized
cancers who have a history of venous thromboembolic episodes.
Tamoxifen
is the most commonly used form of hormonal therapy. Randomized
trials and a meta-analysis have shown that 5 years of tamoxifen
are superior to 1 to 2 years of such treatment. Currently, there
are no convincing data that justify the use of tamoxifen for longer
than 5 years outside the setting of a clinical trial. Although
tamoxifen has been associated with a slight but definite increased
risk of endometrial cancer and venous thromboembolism, the benefit
of tamoxifen treatment far outweighs its risks in the majority
of women. Neither transvaginal ultrasonography nor endometrial
biopsies are indicated as screening maneuvers for endometrial
cancer in asymptomatic women taking tamoxifen. Tamoxifen may be
combined with combination chemotherapy, particularly in premenopausal
women; such combinations may further reduce the risk of recurrence.
There are no data to support the use of raloxifene or aromatase
inhibitors as adjuvant hormonal therapy at this time.
For hormone receptor positive premenopausal patients, alternative
strategies of hormonal therapy, which are used far less frequently
in the United States, include ovarian ablation through surgery,
radiation therapy to the ovaries, or chemical suppression of ovarian
function. Ovarian ablation appears to produce a similar benefit
to some chemotherapy regimens. Combining ovarian ablation with
chemotherapy has not been shown to provide an additional advantage
to date. The value of combining hormonal therapies has not yet
been adequately explored.
Hormonal adjuvant therapy should not be recommended to women whose
breast cancers do not express hormone receptor protein. Randomized
clinical trials have not yet shown that such treatment substantially
reduces the likelihood of recurrence or, in the case of tamoxifen,
diminishes the likelihood of contralateral breast cancer.
3.
For which patients should adjuvant chemotherapy be recommended?
Which
agents should be used, and at what dose or schedule? Over the
past decade, data have emerged that more clearly define the subpopulations
of women with localized breast cancer for whom adjuvant chemotherapy
is indicated as a standard component of treatment. Chemotherapy
has been shown to substantially improve the long-term, relapse-free,
and overall survival in both premenopausal and postmenopausal
women up to age 70 years with node-positive and node-negative
disease.
Randomized
clinical trials have attempted to define optimal chemotherapy
regimens, doses, and schedules in the adjuvant treatment of breast
cancer. These studies, along with the results of overview analyses,
permit a number of conclusions to be drawn.
The
administration of polychemotherapy (> 2 agents) is superior to
single agents. Four to six courses of treatment (3 to 6 months)
appear to provide optimal benefit, with the administration of
additional courses adding to toxicity without substantially improving
overall outcome. However, definitive data on the benefits of more
prolonged treatment are lacking and future research is needed
to directly address this clinically relevant issue.
Anthracyclines (such as doxorubicin and epirubicin) have been
used as components of adjuvant polychemotherapy for breast cancer.
Available data indicate that adjuvant chemotherapy regimens that
include an anthracycline result in a small but statistically significant
improvement in survival compared to nonanthracycline-containing
programs. There is no evidence for excessive cardiac toxicity
in women without significant preexisting heart disease treated
with anthracyclines at the cumulative doses utilized in standard
adjuvant programs. In clinical practice, the decision to use an
anthracycline in an individual patient should take into consideration
the potential survival benefits versus specific concern about
additional toxicity.
Randomized
trials have demonstrated threshold dose effects for two of the
most active chemotherapeutic agents, doxorubicin (A) and cyclophosphamide
(C). These two drugs are frequently administered together (AC)
and appear to result in a comparable survival outcome, whether
given preoperatively or postoperatively. However, AC has not been
compared to cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/5-fluorouracil (CAF)
or cyclophosphamide/epirubicin/5-fluorouracil (CEF). There is
a need for future studies to address the issue of defining the
optimal use of anthracycline-based therapy.
There
is currently no convincing evidence to demonstrate that more dose-intensive
treatment regimens (e.g., high-dose chemotherapy with peripheral
stem cell support) result in improved outcomes compared to the
administration of polychemotherapy programs at standard dose levels.
Such stem cell-support treatment strategies should not be offered
outside the setting of a randomized clinical trial.
Taxanes
(docetaxel, paclitaxel) have recently been demonstrated to be
among the most active agents in the treatment of metastatic breast
cancer. As a result, several studies have explored the clinical
utility of adding these drugs to standard doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide
treatment programs in the adjuvant treatment of node-positive,
localized breast cancer. Although a number of such trials have
completed accrual and others remain in progress, currently available
data are inconclusive and do not permit definitive recommendations
regarding the impact of taxanes on either relapse-free or overall
survival. There is no evidence to support the use of taxanes in
node-negative breast cancer outside the setting of a clinical
trial.
Available
data demonstrate that chemotherapy and tamoxifen are additive
in their impact on survival when employed as adjuvant treatment
of breast cancer. Therefore, most patients with hormone receptor
positive tumors who are receiving chemotherapy should receive
tamoxifen.
At
the present time, there are no convincing data to support the
use of any known biological factor in selecting a specific adjuvant
chemotherapy regimen in breast cancer. Future prospective studies
are needed to determine if such factors in an individual patient
(e.g., HER-2/neu overexpression) should influence the choice of
adjuvant cytotoxic therapy.
Despite
the favorable impact of adjuvant chemotherapy on long-term survival
in breast cancer, it is important to determine whether there are
specific patient populations for whom it is reasonable to avoid
the administration of cytotoxic chemotherapy. Unfortunately, very
limited information is available to answer this important question.
On the basis of available data, it is accepted practice to offer
cytotoxic chemotherapy to most women with lymph node metastases
or with primary breast cancers larger than 1 cm in diameter (both
node-negative and node-positive). For women with node-negative
cancers less than 1 cm in diameter, the decision to consider chemotherapy
should be individualized.
Similarly,
in patients with small, node-negative breast cancers with favorable
histologic subtypes, such as tubular and mucinous cancers, retrospective
data support long-term survival following primary therapy without
the need for adjuvant chemotherapy.
There
are limited data to define the optimal use of adjuvant chemotherapy
for women more than 70 years of age. It is likely that there is
a survival benefit associated with the administration of chemotherapy
in this patient population. There is legitimate concern, however,
regarding the toxicity associated with cytotoxic regimens in this
population. In addition, existing comorbid medical conditions
and mortality from noncancer causes will influence the overall
benefits in this group of women. The decision to treat women over
the age of 70 with adjuvant chemotherapy will need to consider
these factors. Increased participation of women over 70 in randomized
clinical trials and studies specifically addressing the value
and tolerance of adjuvant chemotherapy in these women are urgently
needed.
4. For which patients
should post-mastectomy radiotherapy be recommended?
The standard of care for breast conservation includes surgery
followed by breast radiotherapy. Before the advent of effective
adjuvant chemotherapy, post-mastectomy radiotherapy was commonly
employed. Interest in this approach was revived after several
studies identified patient subgroups with 20 to 40 percent rates
of locoregional recurrence after mastectomy and chemotherapy.
These subgroups, which included women with four or more positive
lymph nodes or an advanced primary tumor (a tumor of 5 cm or greater
or a tumor invading the skin or adjacent musculature), were thought
most likely to benefit from a course of post-mastectomy radiotherapy.
Recent
randomized controlled trials have demonstrated superior tumor
control and overall survival rates with the addition of post-mastectomy
radiotherapy. A recent meta-analysis of more than 22,000 women
comparing adjuvant radiotherapy to no radiotherapy reported an
improvement in locoregional tumor control rates from 70 percent
to 90 percent. This resulted in a significant improvement in the
overall survival rate and in the disease-specific survival rate
after a followup time of 20 years. These findings lend support
to the concept that improving locoregional tumor control rates
in breast cancer can lead to an improvement in survival rates.
The
potential benefits of post-mastectomy radiotherapy must be weighed
against both the acute and long-term side effects of this therapy.
The same meta-analysis documented an excess of non-breast cancer
deaths, the majority of which were vascular in nature. These deaths
were probably related to the high radiotherapy doses received
by the heart and great vessels through the use of outdated radiotherapy
techniques. Contemporary radiotherapy delivery employing image-based
planning has substantially reduced the radiotherapy dose received
by these structures. Although the duration of followup of women
treated with modern techniques is more limited, preliminary data
show no apparent increase in vascular deaths. Post-mastectomy
radiotherapy, however, is associated with an increased risk of
arm edema.
There
is evidence that women with a high risk of locoregional tumor
recurrence after mastectomy will benefit from postoperative radiotherapy.
This high-risk group includes women with four or more positive
lymph nodes or an advanced primary tumor. Post-mastectomy radiotherapy
must be coordinated with adjuvant multiagent chemotherapy and/or
hormonal therapy. Radiotherapy should not be delivered concurrently
with anthracycline chemotherapy and should be delivered within
the first 6 months following mastectomy. In most circumstances,
combined modality adjuvant therapy begins with several courses
of chemotherapy.
Radiotherapy,
as part of such treatment programs, should be delivered with modern
techniques designed to reduce the volume of heart and great vessels
receiving radiotherapy. At this time, the role of post-mastectomy
radiotherapy for women with one to three positive lymph nodes
remains uncertain and is being examined in a randomized clinical
trial.
5.
How do side effects and quality-of-life issues factor into individual
decision-making about adjuvant therapy?
Adjuvant
therapy decisions are complicated by marginal differences in treatment
results and risk-benefit profiles, balancing acute effects with
long-term outcomes. Individual patients differ in the value they
place on these issues. Retrospective studies report that women
may be willing to undergo treatment for as little as a 1 to 2
percent improvement in the probability of survival. Clear communication
of benefits and risks is an essential component in enabling as
informed a joint treatment decision as possible. Absolute and
relative benefits and risks of therapy must be discussed openly.
Acute,
Long-Term and Late Medical Effects of Adjuvant Therapy
Adjuvant Chemotherapy
Studies
to date have documented a range of acute and late side effects
of adjuvant chemotherapy that have the potential for significantly
affecting patients' quality of life. Most acute side effects (e.g.,
nausea and vomiting, mucositis, hair loss, neutropenia) occur
in varying degrees in the different chemotherapy regimens and
resolve after treatment completion. This also seems to be true
for psychological distress. Several randomized studies have found
that the psychological distress patients experience is greater
during more toxic adjuvant chemotherapy treatment, resolving soon
after treatment completion. Similarly, 1 to 3 years after completing
treatment, the distress levels of cancer survivors who had undergone
any of the different adjuvant chemoendocrine therapies equal the
levels of those who had received no further adjuvant therapy.
The
simultaneous combination of chemotherapy plus tamoxifen is associated
with an increased risk of thromboembolism when compared to tamoxifen
alone. Premature menopause, weight gain, and fatigue are the most
frequent long- and short-term problems that have been documented.
Several small studies have documented mild cognitive problems,
such as those in memory, with precise levels of prevalence and
severity yet to be determined. There is also a very small increase
in the risk of treatment-related second malignancies and cardiac
disease.
Adjuvant
Hormone Therapy: Tamoxifen and Ovarian Ablation
Hot
flashes and vaginal discharge have been the most common side effects
attributed to tamoxifen. Tamoxifen is associated with a small,
increased risk of endometrial cancer, pulmonary emboli, and deep
vein thrombosis, particularly for women 50 years old or older.
The benefits, however, far outweigh the risks. Tamoxifen has not
been associated with an increase in depression, weight gain, nausea
and vomiting, diarrhea, or problems in sexual functioning.
As with adjuvant chemotherapy, ovarian ablation is associated
with the development of premature menopause and its associated
symptoms including osteoporosis.
Decision-making in Adjuvant Therapy for
Breast Cancer
Communication between patients and their physicians is the primary
vehicle through which complex treatment decisions are made. This
communication will likely be facilitated through the use of decision
aids, and well-designed patient information materials about the
medical condition or procedure, treatment side effects, probabilities
associated with health outcomes, and impact on quality of life.
Findings from current research suggest that decision aids improve
patients' knowledge about treatment options, reduce patients'
anxiety about treatment decisions and enhance their comfort with
treatment choices, and stimulate patients to play a more active
role in joint decision-making with their physicians.
6.
What are promising new research directions for adjuvant therapy?
During
the past decade, major advances in adjuvant treatment of breast
cancer have resulted from analyses of large prospective randomized
trials. In the United States, however, fewer than 3 percent of
cancer patients are entered in clinical trials. To achieve continued
improvements in adjuvant treatment, efforts should be made to
improve patient and physician participation in these studies.
A number of important questions remain to be answered.
Randomized
clinical trials should be conducted to better define the risks
and benefits of continuing tamoxifen therapy beyond 5 years. Studies
are also needed to expand experience with ovarian ablation, to
explore the value of combined hormonal therapy, and to determine
whether optimal hormonal therapy is equivalent, superior, or additive
to chemotherapy in premenopausal women whose tumors express hormone
receptor protein. The risks and benefits of new, selective estrogen
receptor modulators (SERMs) and aromatase inhibitors should also
be examined in the adjuvant setting.
Randomized
clinical trials evaluating the roles of high dose chemotherapy
and taxanes need to be completed to determine whether these treatments
have a role in the standard management of breast cancer. Additional
studies are also needed to determine the importance of variations
in the doses and schedules of the drugs used in chemotherapy regimens
that are currently accepted as being standard. A particular emphasis
should be placed on carefully designed studies to determine the
clinical and biological characteristics that may more accurately
predict the effectiveness of specific adjuvant treatments in individual
patients. As yet unproven treatments that must be critically evaluated
in prospective trials in the adjuvant setting include trastuzumab,
bisphosphonates, and newer chemotherapeutic and biologic agents.
To
date, prospective trials of adjuvant therapy have failed to include
sufficient numbers of women older than 70 years. Studies need
to be designed that will determine the effectiveness of adjuvant
therapies in this group of women.
The
role of post-mastectomy radiotherapy in women with 1 to 3 positive
lymph nodes needs to be determined. Investigators should continue
to explore the importance of risk factors for recurrence after
mastectomy to improve the selection of patients who may benefit
from adjuvant radiotherapy. To maximize the possible benefit of
adjuvant radiotherapy, new radiation techniques should be developed
that further reduce the radiation dose to normal tissues, such
as the heart and lungs.
Although adjuvant therapy has been found to produce significant
improvements in survival, the ability to predict the value of
these treatments in individual patients is limited. The development
of accurate predictors of treatment efficacy would permit better
targeting of treatments, improving efficacy and reducing the morbidity
and cost of treatment. It is essential that the value of predictive
and prognostic factors be evaluated using standardized protocols
in well-designed clinical studies with sufficient statistical
power to detect clinically important differences. Successful integration
of new technologies, such as tissue and expression microarrays
and proteomics, will depend on careful design and analysis of
clinical investigations. The value of sentinel lymph node biopsy
and of sensitive assays for micrometastatic disease in lymph nodes
and bone marrow should also be important priorities for clinical
research.
Quality-of-life and late-effect evaluations should be judiciously
integrated into selected clinical trials to better discern the
acute and long-term influence of treatment on patients and their
families. Interventions should be sought that will reduce side
effects and improve quality of life. Decision aids and other techniques
should be developed and evaluated for their ability to improve
patients' involvement and understanding of treatment decisions.
Conclusions
During
the past 10 years, substantial progress has been made in the treatment
of breast cancer. For the first time, breast cancer mortality
rates are decreasing in the United States. Refinements of adjuvant
treatment have contributed to this advance.
Generally accepted prognostic and predictive factors include age,
tumor size, lymph node status, histological tumor type, grade,
mitotic rate, and hormonal receptor status. Novel technologies,
such as tissue and expression microarrays and proteomics, hold
exciting potential. Progress, however, will depend on proper design
and analysis of clinical and pathological investigations.
Decisions regarding adjuvant hormonal therapy should be based
on the presence of hormone receptor protein in tumor tissues.
Adjuvant hormonal therapy should be offered to women whose tumors
express hormone receptor protein. At present five years of tamoxifen
is standard adjuvant hormone therapy; ovarian ablation represents
an alternative option for selected premenopausal women. Adjuvant
hormonal therapy should not be recommended to women whose tumors
do not express hormone receptor protein.
Because
adjuvant polychemotherapy improves survival, it should be recommended
to the majority of women with localized breast cancer regardless
of nodal, menopausal, or hormone receptor status. The inclusion
of anthracyclines in adjuvant chemotherapy regimens produces a
small but statistically significant improvement in survival over
nonanthracycline-containing regimens.
Available
data are currently inconclusive regarding the use of taxanes in
adjuvant treatment of node-positive breast cancer. The use of
adjuvant dose-intensive chemotherapy regimens in high-risk breast
cancer and of taxanes in node-negative breast cancer should be
restricted to randomized trials. Ongoing studies evaluating these
treatment strategies should be supported to determine if they
have a role in adjuvant treatment.
Studies
to date have included few patients older than 70 years. There
is a critical need for trials to evaluate the role of adjuvant
chemotherapy in these women.
There is evidence that women with a high risk of locoregional
tumor recurrence after mastectomy benefit from postoperative radiotherapy.
This high-risk group includes women with four or more positive
lymph nodes or an advanced primary cancer. Currently, the role
of post-mastectomy radiotherapy for patients with one to three
positive lymph nodes remains uncertain and should be tested in
a randomized controlled trial.
Individual patients differ in the importance they place on the
risks and benefits of adjuvant treatments. Quality-of-life needs
to be evaluated in selected randomized clinical trials to examine
the impact of the major acute and long-term side effects of adjuvant
treatments, particularly premature menopause, weight gain, mild
memory loss, and fatigue. Methods to support shared decision-making
between patients and their physicians have been successful in
trials; they need to be tailored for diverse populations and should
be tested for broader dissemination.
Consensus
Development Panel
Patricia
Eifel, M.D.
Panel and Conference Chairperson
John A. Axelson, M.D., FACP
Jose
Costa, M.D.
John
Crowley, Ph.D.
Walter
J. Curran, Jr., M.D.
Ann
Deshler, R.N.
Shirley Fulton, J.D., M.B.A.
Carolyn B. Hendricks, M.D.
Margaret
Kemeny, M.D.
Alice
B. Kornblith, Ph.D.
Thomas
A. Louis, Ph.D.
Maurie
Markman, M.D.
Robert
Mayer, M.D.
Debra
Roter, Dr.P.H.
Speakers
Karen
H. Antman, M.D.
Jonas
C. Bergh, M.D., Ph.D.
John
L. Bryant, Ph.D.
Gary
M. Clark, Ph.D.
Alan
Coates, M.D., FRACP
Jack
Cuzick, Ph.D.
Maria
Grazia Daidone, Ph.D.
Nancy
E. Davidson, M.D.
Christina Davies, MBChB, M.Sc.
James
J. Dignam, Ph.D.
Bernard
Fisher, M.D.
Patricia
A. Ganz, M.D.
Aron
Goldhirsch, M.D.
Richard
Gray, M.A., M.Sc. I.
Craig
Henderson, M.D.
Gabriel
N. Hortobagyi, M.D., FACP
Amy
S. Langer, M.B.A.
Mark
Norman Levine, M.D.
Eleftherios
P. Mamounas, M.D.
Monica
Morrow, M.D.
Hyman
B. Muss, M.D.
Larry
Norton, M.D. C.
Kent
Osborne, M.D.
William
P. Peters, M.D., Ph.D.
Sir Richard Peto, F.R.S., M.Sc.
Martine
J. Piccart, M.D., Ph.D.
Lori
Pierce, M.D.
Peter
Ravdin, M.D., Ph.D.
Stuart
J. Schnitt, M.D.
George
W. Sledge, Jr., M.D.
Eric
P. Winer, M.D.
Norman
Wolmark, M.D.
William
C. Wood, M.D., FACS
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