According to a new study published online in the December 10 edition of the journal The Lancet, supplementing the standard estrogen-blocking 'tamoxifen' drug with chemotherapy can improve the chances of survival in postmenopausal women suffering from the most common kind of breast cancer, called estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

The study, noting that tamoxifen works by blocking the receptors, elaborates that in the hormone-driven estrogen receptor-positive cancer, tumor cells carry many receptors on their surfaces to which estrogen gets affixed, thereby fueling the growth of the tumor.

The findings of the study, led by Dr. Kathy Albain, a professor of medicine at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, were based on the observation of nearly 1,500 post- menopausal receptor-positive breast cancer patients for up to 13 years.

While 381 of the women were given tamoxifen alone, and 587 received chemotherapy alone, 590 women were assigned to chemo plus tamoxifen.

It was found that the chemo-tamoxifen-combo treatment increased the women's disease-free survival by 24 percent. Further, the combo group showed ten-year disease-free survival estimates of
57, vis-à-vis the 48 percent estimates for the tamoxifen-only group.

Noting that the combination treatment works the best if given before the tamoxifen drug regimen is started, Albain said: "Chemotherapy with Adriamycin adds to your survival benefit over and above what tamoxifen would do if you are postmenopausal and have positive lymph nodes and estrogen receptor-positive cancer."