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The effects of multiple combination chemotherapy with vincristine, cyclophosphamide (Endoxan), methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil, adriamycin and prednisolone (VEMFAH) for advanced breast cancer

  • Original Articles
  • Combination Chemotherapy, Breast Cancer
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Summary

Thirty-eight patients with advanced breast cancer were treated with the ‘VEMFAH’ multiple-drug combination chemotherapy, consisting of vincristine (V), cyclophosphamide (Endoxan; E), methotrexate (M), 5-fluorouracil was evaluated by the UICC criteria. Among the 35 evaluable cases, 4 complete responses (CR), 23 partial responses (PR), 2 cases of no change (NC), and 6 of progressive disease (PD) were observed. The response rate (CR+PR) was 77.1%. The median duration of response was 52 weeks (8–192 weeks) or 12 months. In 32 patients who received more than two courses of therapy the 50% survival time of responders was 27.0 months, which was significantly longer than the 10.3 months of nonresponders (P0.05). Except for 2 patients who developed myocardial damage, the therapy was never terminated because of side effects. Cumulative cardiotoxicity was not apparent in this study. This multiple-drug combination chemotherapy with ‘VEMFAH’ is concluded to be an effective treatment for advanced and disseminated breast cancer.

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Author notes

  1. Tetsuhito Kojima

    Present address: Department of Internal Medicine, Saga Medical School, 840-01, Saga, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cancer Chemotherapy, Department of Medicine, Anjo Kosei Hospital, 446, Anjo-shi, Aichi, Japan

    Tetsuhito Kojima, Akira Hoshino, Kanji Ohara, Osamu Kamiya, Koichiro Nagata & Yoshinori Ito

  2. Department of Surgery, Anjo Kosei Hospital, 446, Anjo-shi, Aichi, Japan

    Tomohiro Kinoshita, Isamu Sugiura, Mitsuaki Yamada & Haruo Sato

  3. First Department of Internal Medicine, Nagoya University, School of Medicine, 461, Nagoya-shi, Aichi, Japan

    Eiichi Nagura

  4. Department of Radiology, Saint Hamamatsu Hospital, 430, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka, Japan

    Yoshikazu Dohke

Authors
  1. Tetsuhito Kojima
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  2. Akira Hoshino
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  3. Kanji Ohara
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  4. Osamu Kamiya
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  5. Koichiro Nagata
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  6. Yoshinori Ito
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  7. Tomohiro Kinoshita
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  8. Isamu Sugiura
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  9. Mitsuaki Yamada
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  11. Eiichi Nagura
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Kojima, T., Hoshino, A., Ohara, K. et al. The effects of multiple combination chemotherapy with vincristine, cyclophosphamide (Endoxan), methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil, adriamycin and prednisolone (VEMFAH) for advanced breast cancer. Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 15, 268–271 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00263899

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00263899

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