Response of patients with carcinoma of the breast to hormonal therapy and combination chemotherapy.
Of the 89 patients with disseminated carcinoma of the breast treated with combination or sequential cyclophosphamide, fluorouracil and vincristine, 63 had received evaluable course of endocrine therapy and chemotherapy. The response to endocrine therapy, regardless of its nature or duration, failed to predict response to subsequent chemotherapy. Selection of the patients on the basis of pretreatment disease free interval, menopausal status or metastatic pattern showed the groups of patients to be homogeneous in distribution. In addition, evaluation for a disease free interval greater or less than two years, menopausal status and visceral or nonvisceral metastasis did not allow identification of groups predicting responsiveness to combination chemotherapy.