Combination Chemotherapy With or Without Epirubicin in Treating Women With Stage I or Stage II Breast Cancer

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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00003577

Recruitment Status : Completed

First Posted : January 27, 2003

Last Update Posted : December 19, 2013

Sponsor:

Information provided by:

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Study Description

Brief Summary:

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells. It is not yet known whether combination chemotherapy plus epirubicin is more effective than combination chemotherapy alone for stage I or stage II breast cancer.

PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying combination chemotherapy alone to see how well it works compared to combination chemotherapy and epirubicin in treating women with stage I or stage II breast cancer who have undergone surgery to remove the tumor.

Condition or disease	Intervention/treatment	Phase
Breast Cancer	Drug: CMF regimen Drug: cyclophosphamide Drug: epirubicin hydrochloride Drug: fluorouracil Drug: methotrexate Procedure: adjuvant therapy Radiation: radiation therapy	Phase 3

Detailed Description:

OBJECTIVES:

Compare disease-free and overall survival of women with early stage breast cancer treated with adjuvant cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil with or without epirubicin.
Compare the quality of life in a subgroup of these patients treated with these regimens.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized study. Patients are stratified according to radiotherapy timing (concurrent versus sequential), nodal status (negative versus 1-3 versus at least 4), age (50 and under versus over 50), grade, and tumor size. Patients are randomized to one of two treatment arms.

Arm I: Patients receive oral cyclophosphamide on days 1-14 and methotrexate IV and fluorouracil IV on days 1 and 8. Treatment repeats every 4 weeks for 6 courses.
Arm II: Patients receive epirubicin IV on day 1 every 3 weeks for 4 courses followed by cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil, as in arm I, for 4 courses.

Some patients may receive radiotherapy during or after chemotherapy. Treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Quality of life is assessed in a subset of patients (N=500) before chemotherapy starts, at 3 months of treatment, at the end of chemotherapy, and at 6, 12, and 18 months after treatment.

Patients are followed annually for 10 years.

Peer Reviewed and Funded or Endorsed by Cancer Research UK

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 2,000 patients will be accrued for this study within 4 years.

Study Design

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Study Type :	Interventional (Clinical Trial)
Estimated Enrollment :	2000 participants
Allocation:	Randomized
Primary Purpose:	Treatment
Official Title:	National Breast Cancer Study of Epirubicin + CMF v Classical CMF Adjuvant Therapy
Study Start Date :	March 1996
Actual Study Completion Date :	September 2008

Resource links provided by the National Library of Medicine

Genetics Home Reference related topics: Breast cancer

MedlinePlus related topics: Breast Cancer

Drug Information available for: Epirubicin hydrochloride Epirubicin

U.S. FDA Resources

Arms and Interventions

Outcome Measures

Eligibility Criteria

Information from the National Library of Medicine

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Ages Eligible for Study:	Child, Adult, Older Adult
Sexes Eligible for Study:	Female
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:	No

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

Histological confirmation of invasive, early stage breast cancer
Prior complete excision of tumor required (wide local excision or mastectomy)
Hormone receptor status:
- Not specified

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

Not specified

Sex:

Female

Menopausal status:

Pre-, peri-, or post-menopausal

Performance status:

Not specified

Hematopoietic:

Adequate bone marrow function

Hepatic:

Adequate hepatic function

Renal:

Adequate renal function

Other:

No prior cancer except for basal cell carcinoma or carcinoma in situ
Not pregnant or nursing
Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

Not specified

Chemotherapy:

No prior chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

Concurrent hormone therapy allowed

Radiotherapy:

No prior radiotherapy
Concurrent radiotherapy allowed

Surgery:

See Disease Characteristics
No more than 6 weeks since prior surgery to the breast

Contacts and Locations

Information from the National Library of Medicine

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00003577

Locations

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United Kingdom
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom, CB2 2QQ

Sponsors and Collaborators

University Hospital Birmingham

Investigators

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Study Chair:	Helena Earl, MBBS, PhD, FRCP	Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

More Information

Publications of Results:

Earl HM, Hiller L, Dunn JA, Bathers S, Harvey P, Stanley A, Grieve RJ, Agrawal RK, Fernando IN, Brunt AM, McAdam K, O'Reilly S, Rea DW, Spooner D, Poole CJ; NEAT Investigators. NEAT: National Epirubicin Adjuvant Trial--toxicity, delivered dose intensity and quality of life. Br J Cancer. 2008 Oct 21;99(8):1226-31. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6604674. Epub 2008 Sep 16.

Other Publications:

Earl H, Hiller L, Dunn JA, et al.: The National Epirubicin Adjuvant Trial (NEAT) and Scottish Cancer Trials Breast Group (SCTBG) br9601 randomized phase III adjuvant early breast cancer trials: the updated definitive joint analysis. [Abstract] J Clin Oncol 25 (Suppl 18): A-534, 11s, 2007.

Poole CJ, Earl HM, Hiller L, Dunn JA, Bathers S, Grieve RJ, Spooner DA, Agrawal RK, Fernando IN, Brunt AM, O'Reilly SM, Crawford SM, Rea DW, Simmonds P, Mansi JL, Stanley A, Harvey P, McAdam K, Foster L, Leonard RC, Twelves CJ; NEAT Investigators and the SCTBG. Epirubicin and cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil as adjuvant therapy for early breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2006 Nov 2;355(18):1851-62.

Poole CJ, Earl HM, Dunn JA, et al.: NEAT (National Epirubicin Adjuvant Trial) and SCTBG BR9601 (Scottish Cancer Trials Breast Group) phase III adjuvant breast trials show a significant relapse-free and overall survival advantage for sequential ECMF. [Abstract] Proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology 22: A-13, 4, 2003.

Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):

Ali HR, Glont SE, Blows FM, Provenzano E, Dawson SJ, Liu B, Hiller L, Dunn J, Poole CJ, Bowden S, Earl HM, Pharoah PD, Caldas C. PD-L1 protein expression in breast cancer is rare, enriched in basal-like tumours and associated with infiltrating lymphocytes. Ann Oncol. 2015 Jul;26(7):1488-93. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdv192. Epub 2015 Apr 20.

Ali HR, Provenzano E, Dawson SJ, Blows FM, Liu B, Shah M, Earl HM, Poole CJ, Hiller L, Dunn JA, Bowden SJ, Twelves C, Bartlett JM, Mahmoud SM, Rakha E, Ellis IO, Liu S, Gao D, Nielsen TO, Pharoah PD, Caldas C. Association between CD8+ T-cell infiltration and breast cancer survival in 12,439 patients. Ann Oncol. 2014 Aug;25(8):1536-43. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdu191. Epub 2014 Jun 9.

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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00003577 History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers:	CDR0000066644 CRC-TU-NEAT EU-98041
First Posted:	January 27, 2003 Key Record Dates
Last Update Posted:	December 19, 2013
Last Verified:	February 2001

Keywords provided by National Cancer Institute (NCI):


stage I breast cancer stage II breast cancer

Additional relevant MeSH terms:

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Breast Neoplasms Neoplasms by Site Neoplasms Breast Diseases Skin Diseases Cyclophosphamide Methotrexate Fluorouracil Epirubicin Immunosuppressive Agents Immunologic Factors Physiological Effects of Drugs Antirheumatic Agents Antineoplastic Agents, Alkylating Alkylating Agents	Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action Antineoplastic Agents Myeloablative Agonists Abortifacient Agents, Nonsteroidal Abortifacient Agents Reproductive Control Agents Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic Antimetabolites Dermatologic Agents Enzyme Inhibitors Folic Acid Antagonists Nucleic Acid Synthesis Inhibitors Antibiotics, Antineoplastic Topoisomerase II Inhibitors Topoisomerase Inhibitors

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