CALOR Trial: Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Isolated Locoregional Recurrence of Breast Cancer
Posted: Friday, May 4, 2018
Patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-negative—but not ER-positive—isolated locoregional recurrence of breast cancer seem to benefit from chemotherapy after local therapy, according to the final analysis of the phase III CALOR trial. Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the study was conducted by Irene L. Wapnir, MD, of Stanford University Medical Center, and colleagues.
“The CALOR trial indicates that at present, [chemotherapy] offers the best prospect of prolonged [disease-free survival] in patients with ER-negative first [isolated locoregional recurrence], whereas adding [chemotherapy] to endocrine therapy seems to offer no benefit to patients with ER-positive [isolated locoregional recurrence],” the authors concluded.
The 162 patients (58 with ER-negative and 104 with ER-positive isolated locoregional recurrence) enrolled in the trial from August 2003 to January 2010. They were randomly assigned to receive chemotherapy or no chemotherapy. A previous report at a median follow-up of 5 years showed a significant benefit of chemotherapy for patients with ER-negative isolated locoregional recurrence, but more data were needed on its effect for patients with ER-positive isolated locoregional recurrence.
At a median follow-up of 9 years, the final phase of the CALOR trial found that although chemotherapy was associated with a significant benefit among patients with ER-negative isolated locoregional recurrence, it did not have the same effect among patients with ER-positive isolated locoregional recurrence. The 10-year disease-free survival rate for the group receiving chemotherapy and the group that did not was a respective 70% and 34% for ER-negative patients, versus 50% and 59% for ER-positive patients.
