autologous blood and marrow transplantation - Blog Science ...

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Dicke et al.
Stage IV Breast Cancer
CAT B - PFS
1 . .
n = 31
PF = 15
Med PFS = 23 months
Med PF FU = 39 months
4- 1 1 1 1 1 I i I i I i I.
10 20 30 40 50
Months From HD To FU
60
335
Median
Figure 3. Progression-free survival (PFS) in category B metastatic breast cancer. Kapla
Meier estimate. On horizontal axis, months from high dose (HD) to last follow-up (FU) h
been plotted. N, number; PF, progression-free; Med PF FU, median follow-up of progres
sion-free patients; Med PFS, median progression-free survival.
DISCUSSION
It is clear from the results that patients with disease completely responding to
normal-dose chemotherapy do better than patients with a partial response and those
with progression of disease. This is in line with results and the concept published by
Philip et al. 6
The overall survival of the 78 patients is >42 months, which is
favorable to the median survival of 19 months of metastatic breast cancer in the
CALGB study as published by Mick et al. 2
Patient selection cannot be excluded and
may account for the favorable results. Our program is totally outpatient and
therefore patient-friendly and cost-effective. The frequency of "infectious episodes"
that necessitate hospitalization is