Purpose: The optimal integration of chemotherapy with radiation (RT) for patients with early-stage breast cancer remains uncertain. We present the long-term results of a prospective randomized trial to address this question.
Patients and methods: Two hundred forty-four patients were randomly assigned after conservative breast surgery to receive 12 weeks of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, methotrexate, fluorouracil, and prednisone (CAMFP) before RT (CT-first) or after RT (RT-first). Median follow-up for surviving patients was 135 months.
Results: There were no significant differences between the CT-first and RT-first arms in time to any event, distant metastasis, or death. Sites of first failure were also not significantly different.
Conclusion: Among breast cancer patients treated with conservative surgery, there is no advantage to giving RT before adjuvant chemotherapy. However, this study does not have enough statistical power to rule out a clinically important survival benefit for either sequence.