Breast cancer chemo not helpful for many

Leiden, Netherlands -- Women under 40 with breast cancer who have chemotherapy in addition to lumpectomies or radiotherapy, may not benefit from the drugs, a European study found.

Developing breast cancer at a young age is very worrying in terms of survival, but some young women may be undergoing not only unpleasant but also unnecessary chemotherapy, which can be avoided, the researchers at the Leiden University Medical Center, in the Netherlands said.

Young women with breast cancer in Europe are currently advised to undergo courses of chemotherapy as well as removal of the tumor or an entire breast.

A research team of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer selected patients from four trials. Women with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer have high levels of cells which contain estrogen receptors, and the tumors tend to grow less aggressively than estrogen receptor negative tumors.

The difference in survival rates between the two treatment groups was just 5 percent in favor of the estrogen receptor negative breast cancer -- indicating that the chemotherapy gave no advantage, the study reported in Breast Cancer Research.

Adjuvant chemotherapy is a well established but ineffective treatment in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer patients age 40 years or younger, the study concluded.

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