J Breast Dis.  2016 Dec;4(2):116-121. 10.14449/jbd.2016.4.2.116.

Oncologic Effect of Oral Fluorouracil in Hormone Receptor-Negative T1a Node-Negative Breast Cancer Patients

• Kim M
• Ahn S
• Son B
• Lee J
• Koh B
• Sohn B
• Lee S
• Kim HJ

• KMID: 2368450
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14449/jbd.2016.4.2.116

Abstract

PURPOSE
As 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) has previously exhibited antitumor activity and few adverse effects in the treatment of breast cancer, we aimed to specifically assess the benefits of orally administered 5-FU in hormone receptor-negative small breast cancer.
METHODS
We retrospectively identified patients with pT1aN0 and hormone receptor-negative breast cancer who underwent surgery between 1993 and 2008 at Asan Medical Center. Patients were divided into two cohorts based on adjuvant doxifluridine (Didox; Shin Poong Pharm. Co., Ltd.) administration, and the disease-free survival (DFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) was assessed for each cohort.
RESULTS
Both cohorts had similar ages and tumor sizes. The DFS and CSS did not significantly differ between the groups (p=0.399 and p=0.126, respectively). When the cohorts were assessed according to human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status, doxifluridine significantly improved DFS among patients with T1aN0 and HER2-positive breast cancer (p=0.037).
CONCLUSION
Doxifluridine did not yield a significant reduction in DFS events in hormone receptor-negative early breast cancer. However, a clear benefit was observed in hormone receptor-negative, HER2-positive T1aN0 breast cancer patients.

Keyword

Breast neoplasms; Doxifluridine; Hormone receptor; Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; Small tumor