Adjuvant endocrine treatment (goserelin vs tamoxifen) in pre-menopausal patients with operable node positive stage II breast cancer. A prospective randomized national multicenter study

Aims: To evaluate possible differences in effect on time to recurrence and overall survival in node positive pre-menopausal breast cancer patients (age≤50 years) receiving LHRH analogue or tamoxifen as adjuvant endocrine treatment. Methods: Between January 1989 and July 1994, 320 patients with node positive (pN+) and hormone receptor positive or receptor status unknown tumors were included and randomized in a national multicenter study to receive either tamoxifen or goserelin as adjuvant treatment for two years. Primary surgical treatment was employed according to current standards. Final follow-up was completed as of December 2000. Time to events were estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method, and compared by the log rank test. Relative risks were estimated by the Coxʹs proportional hazards model. Results: No differences in time to first recurrence or overall survival were observed between treatment groups. Proportions of patients in each group having a second breast cancer were also similar. Conclusions: Standard adjuvant treatment with tamoxifen as compared to adjuvant LHRH analogue therapy employed in this group of breast cancer patients gave similar outcomes, but the number of patients was too small to formally exclude a potentially clinically relevant difference in survival.