Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer

Prolonged chemotherapy has been used as an adjuvant to mastectomy in women with involved axillary nodes, in an attempt to ablate or suppress subclinical, micrometastatic disease. The preliminary results and surrounding controversies are reviewed. It is concluded that at this time there is a decreased relapse rate but no increase in survival, and it is in this light that adjuvant chemotherapy cannot be endorsed outside of well-conducted clinical trials.