BREAST-CANCER .3.

Adjuvant Therapy of Breast Cancer The demonstration that adjuvant systemic therapy (i.e., systemic therapy given at the time of primary local treatment in the absence of demonstrated metastases) can prolong the disease-free interval and improve overall survival has been a major advance in the management of breast cancer. Randomized clinical trials of systemic adjuvant therapy were pioneered by the Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori176 and the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project177 and provided the first evidence of the benefit of cytotoxic chemotherapy in women with involvement of axillary lymph nodes, particularly younger women… © 1992, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.