Drug Therapy Cuts Breast Cancer Deaths

The risk of death after five years was reduced by more than a third for breast cancer patients treated with both chemotherapy and tamoxifen, an anti-estrogen drug, when compared to treatment with tamoxifen alone, a study found. In a study of more than 2,300 patients who had undergone surgery for breast cancer, researchers compared the rates of survival and of cancer spread among three groups that received different postsurgical drug treatment. Disease-free survival after five years was 85% for the women receiving only tamoxifen, while the rate was 90% and 89% for the other two groups.