Corticosteroids for elderly patients with breast cancer

✍ Scribed by M. J. Minton; R. K. Knight; R. D. Rubens; J. L. Hayward

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 451 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19810815)48:4<883::aid-cncr2820480404>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

Ninety-one assessable elderly women (365 years) with advanced breast cancer were treated with prednisolone 15 mg (or cortisone 75 mg) daily after primary endocrine treatment (estrogens, androgens or tamoxifen). Thirteen (14%) achieved an objective regression, and 19 (21%) others showed no change for ssix months. Hence, 32 patients (35%) had control of disease for about one year. Responses were mainly in soft tissue and skeletal lesions and were independent of response to prior endocrine treatment. Toxicity was low. Low-dose corticosteroid treatment is of value in controlling advanced breast cancer in elderly women.

Cancer 48:883-887, 1981.

ORTICOSTEROIDS have been used in patients with C advanced breast cancer for many years. Dosage and results have varied widely, and there is still no clear indication of the optimal therapeutic regimen. Doses used have varied from between the equivalent of 10 to 100 mg of prednisolone daily, and the response rates quoted using variable criteria have ranged from 0% to 57% (Table ). It has been the practice of the physicians in this Unit, over the last 16 years, to use low-dose corticosteroids in preference to ablative procedures for elderly patients ( 3 6 5 years) who had relapsed after primary additive endocrine therapy.