Long-term bisphosphonate in breast cancer ‘provides no extra benefit’
It may be time to question the role of the bone-sparing therapy, say expert commentators.
Extending zoledronate treatment beyond two years after adjuvant chemotherapy does not improve the prognosis of high-risk patients with early breast cancer, clinical trial results show.
In the multicentre phase 3 open-label SUCCESS A trial, German researchers enrolled patients with either node-positive or high-risk node-negative primary invasive breast cancer from 2005-2007, with the last participant completing the trial in 2014.
Nearly 3000 patients (median age 53) were first randomised to adjuvant chemotherapy with three cycles of fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by three cycles of docetaxel with or without gemcitabine.
After chemotherapy, all patients had two years of zoledronate therapy (4mg IV every three months).
