Health
Study finds benefits in chemotherapy
Posted: Dec 11, 2009 11:01 AM by NBC
A new study finds a significant benefit of chemotherapy among post-menopausal breast cancer patients.
The study included nearly 1,500 post-menopausal women who had hormone receptor-positive breast cancer that had spread to at least one lymph node. All of the women took tamoxifen every day for 5 years.
Another group also had 6-months of chemotherapy.
Researchers monitored the women for a decade. Adding chemo to the tamoxifen decreased the chances of a cancer recurrence by nearly a quarter.
There was also some evidence it cut the risk of death.
Women who took tamoxifen after their chemo rounds had better survival rates than women who took it during or before the chemotherapy.
This study was conducted by researchers at the Southwest Oncology Group, led by Dr. Kathy Albain of Loyola University Health System. It's published in the medical journal Lancet.
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