Abstract
A randomised clinical trial has been conducted to compare adjuvant tamoxifen, 20 mg daily, with tamoxifen and prednisolone, 7.5 mg daily, in post-menopausal women with operable breast cancer. There were 254 evaluable patients, of whom 128 were given tamoxifen alone and 126 received tamoxifen and prednisolone. After a median follow-up of 48 months there was no significant difference in relapse-free or overall survival of the two groups. Furthermore, with survival slightly favouring tamoxifen, confidence intervals on the hazard ratio established that a difference in favour of tamoxifen plus prednisolone of even 5% at 5 years was very unlikely (P < 0.02). Thus, despite the relatively small number of patients in this trial, the data clearly establish that prednisolone is not of value as an additional adjuvant agent.
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Fentiman, I., Howell, A., Hamed, H. et al. A controlled trial of adjuvant tamoxifen, with or without prednisolone, in post-menopausal women with operable breast cancer. Br J Cancer 70, 729–731 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1994.384
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1994.384
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