Adjuvant tamoxifen in postmenopausal breast cancer: preliminary results of a randomized trial.

Between May 1978 and March 1982, 179 postmenopausal women with operable breast cancer were randomized to receive either adjuvant tamoxifen, 40 mg daily for three years (TAM group), or no further treatment (controls). The difference in five-year survival rates (61% in the control group, 72% in the TAM group) was not statistically significant. However, there was a significant improvement in disease-free survival in the TAM group (61%) relative to the controls (44%) (p = 0.

[Renal toxicity of 9-hydroxy-2-methyl-ellipticinium].

9-hydroxy-2-methyl-ellipticinium (HME) is an intercaling agent mainly potent in metastatic breast cancer. Its almost complete lack of bone marrow toxicity is of greatest value. However, among 385 patients 20 cases of renal failure were observed: renal failure is gradual, non reversible except in four cases with acute renal failure.

[Reliability of cytologic puncture. Who should perform the puncture of breast tumors?].

In a period of 18 months, 187 cytology aspiration biopsies of the breast were performed at the Centre François Baclesse by clinicians and radiologists, using the conventional technique. Comparison of the results with clinical, radiological and histological findings by different specialists showed that one out of two aspiration biopsies gave an erroneous diagnosis. The authors believe that this failure was due to the fact that the biopsies were not performed by a cytologist.

Hydroxy-9-methyl-2-ellipticinium for osseous metastases from breast cancer: a 5-year experience.

A group of 135 patients with osseous metastases from breast cancer were treated with hydroxy-9-methyl-2-ellipticinium (100 mg/m2 weekly). Although it was impossible to grade the response precisely, because only indirect criteria are available for assessing the course of bone metastases (radiographs, quantified 99mTc pyrophosphate scintigrams, CEA), it was considered that an objective response was obtained in 44 cases. These responses lasted from 3 to 17 months.

[Hydroxy-9-methyl-2-ellipticinium (NSC 264-137) for osseous metastases from breast cancer. A 4 year experience (author's transl)].

In 96 patients (95 women--1 man) with osseous metastases from breast cancer suitable for analysis an objective remission was obtained with hydroxy-9-methyl-2-ellipticinium (100 mg/m2 weekly) in 31 cases. These responses lasted from 3 to 17 months. The main characteristic of this compound is its lack of marrow toxicity, a property of value in osseous lesions where marrow is so frequently involved, making difficult the use of conventional chemical drugs.

Antitumor activity, pharmacology, and toxicity of ellipticines, ellipticinium, and 9-hydroxy derivatives: preliminary clinical trials of 2-methyl-9-hydroxy ellipticinium (NSC 264-137).

Ellipticine and some derivatives are highly cytotoxic substances which kill L1210 cells at concentrations ranging form 10(-8) to 10(-6)M. Some compounds in this series bind with high affinity to DNA (affinity constant between 10(7) M-1 and 10(5) M-1) by intercalation between base pairs. The antitumoral properties of these derivatives are thought to be related to their DNA-binding ability.

[Hydroxy 9-methyl 2-ellipticinium acetate (NSC 264-137). Toxicologic study and therapeutic effect in 100 cancers (author's transl)].

A new derivative of ellipticine, hydroxy-9-methyl-2-ellipticinium acetate, was found to be a useful anti-tumor drug in advanced cancers which could not be treated any longer successfully by any other procedure. In our series of 100 patients, the best results were obtained with bone metastases from breast carcinomas and with anaplastic thyroid carcinomas. Most patients usually received a weekly perfusion of 80 mg/m2.

Sex of first child as a prognostic factor in breast cancer.

The sex of the first child of patients who underwent mastectomy for potentially curable breast cancer appeared to be a valuable prognostic factor: patients whose first child was a boy had a better outcome than those whose first child was a girl. The difference was statistically significant. This may have been because the male/female sex ratio among first children was significantly higher in those patients without node involvement than in those with node involvement.

[Stewart-Treves syndrome. Apropos of a case with ultrastructural study].

An optical and ultrastructural study was performed on biopsy and autopsy specimens of Stewart Treves syndrome cutaneous tumours and their metatases. Various histological aspects are described: territories presenting typical vascular differentiation, spindle cell "Kaposi type" territories and undifferentiated territories. The ultrastructural study confirmed the angiomatous differentiation of these tumors and revealed a certain number of arguments in favor of blood rather than lymphatic capillary differentiation of the newly formed vessels.

[Pregnancy and breast cancer: 2 entities with complex interferences. Critical study of the dossier].

The author reviews the epidemiological, biological and clinical data concerning the association of carcinoma of the breast and pregnancy. He discusses, in particular, the therapeutic problems raised by this association. The author attracts attention to the fact that in certain circumstances, pregnancy may aggravate the disease, whilst in others, it seems to protect with regard to the cancer.

[Age at the time of the first birth: a variable with simple, double, or triple significance in breast cancer studies].

I.--The inverse relationship of risk with parity is one of the earliest known features of the epidemiology of human mammary cancer. But recently knowledge of this relationship was refined when Mac Mahon and his colleagues found that the protective effect is actually correlated to the age of the mother at the first birth rather than to the total number of children, so that a woman who has a child before the age of 18 is one third as likely to suffer breast cancer in later life as a woman first delivered at 35.