New Data Support Bone Marrow Transplant in Some Breast Ca Patients.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. -- High-dose chemotherapy with bone marrow transplant appears to be more effective than multiple cycles of chemotherapy in selected women with advanced breast cancer, based on a preliminary analysis of the interim results of an ongoing study.

The prevailing opinion of high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant has been "unreasonably negative" ever since a spate of negative results was reported in the spring of 1999, Dr. William P. Vaughn said at the annual meeting of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. However, he strongly cautioned against overinterpretation of the unpublished data collected by Dutch researchers on the first 284 patients enrolled in a clinical study.

Women who had undergone mastectomy or breast-conserving treatment and had four or more positive axillary nodes were enrolled in the study. The patients, who were aged 55 or younger, entered the study within 6 weeks of their breast surgery and prior to radiation or chemotherapy. A total of 885 women had been enrolled by July 1999. The study is scheduled to be finished during the summer of 2002.

Women in the control arm received five cycles of fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide. Women in the high-dose arm got four cycles of this regimen, followed by a cycle of high-dose cyclophosphamide, thiotepa, and carboplatin; the women then had an autologous marrow transplant, followed by radiation ...