> Table 41: Tamoxifen and overall survival in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer
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Introduction: Among women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, adjuvant tamoxifen can greatly improve overall survival. The table below shows results from the most recent report from the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group. Combining data from available randomized clinical trials, this report showed that the longer tamoxifen was used (up to 5 years), the more 15-year overall survival increased. Both lymph node-negative and lymph node-positive women saw improvement. Also, the report found that a woman’s age and whether or not she had been treated with chemotherapy did not limit the benefits of tamoxifen use (information not shown in table).
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Study selection criteria: Latest Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative analysis.
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Pooled Analysis
Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group [1]
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15-Year Breast Cancer Survival
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Percent Surviving—
Tamoxifen
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Percent Surviving—
No Tamoxifen
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Absolute Improvement in Survival With Tamoxifen
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Tamoxifen use for 1-2 years*
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Overall
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69.2%
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64.1%
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5.1%†
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Tamoxifen use for 5 years‡
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Overall
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80.7%
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72.9%
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7.8%†
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10-Year Overall Survival
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Percent Surviving—
Tamoxifen
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Percent Surviving—
No Tamoxifen
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Absolute Improvement in Survival With Tamoxifen
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Tamoxifen use for 5 years‡
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Lymph node negative
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81.8%
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76.8%
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5.0%†
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Lymph node positive
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64.3%
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52.1%
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12.2%†
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15-Year Overall Survival
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Percent Surviving—
Tamoxifen
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Percent Surviving—
No Tamoxifen
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Absolute Improvement in Survival With Tamoxifen
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Tamoxifen use for 5 years‡
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Overall
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64.3%
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56.4%
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7.9%†
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* A combination of 44 randomized clinical trials that together include 33,209 women.
† Statistically significant improvement.
‡ A combination of 12 randomized clinical trials that together include 15,017 women.
References
1. Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group. Effects of chemotherapy and hormonal therapy for early breast cancer on recurrence and 15-year survival: an overview of the randomized trials. Lancet. 365(9472):1687-717, 2005.
Updated 09/12/09
