The effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on the cosmetic results after primary radiation treatment for early stage breast cancer

Breast cancer patients treated by primary radiation therapy who have positive axillary lymph nodes now typically receive adjuvant chemotherapy. In order to evaluate the effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on the response of the breast to radiation treatment, we compared the cosmetic results of 49 patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and 206 patients not treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. A variety of chemotherapy regimens were employed, most commonly a combination of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF). The median follow-up time for all patients was 33 months. Cosmetic results were scored by the physician at each follow-up evaluation as excellent, good, and fair or poor, depending on the presence and extent of radiation-related changes in the treated breast. Patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy were less likely to have an excellent overall cosmetic result than patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy. At 24 months 24% of these patients had an excellent cosmetic result compared with 64% of patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy (p = 0.0002). This difference was due primarily to a shift in chemotherapy-treated patients from an excellent to a good overall cosmetic result. Breast retraction was noted to be the most frequent determinant of a fair or poor cosmetic result and was more common in patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. At 24 months, 62% of these patients had evidence of breast retraction compared with 44% of patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy (p = 0.06). We conclude from this preliminary analysis that adjuvant chemotherapy modifies the response of the breast to radiation, most notably by increasing the development of retraction.