Prolonged Tamoxifen Compared With Shorter Tamoxifen in Treating Patients Who Have Breast Cancer

February 6, 2009 updated by: University of Oxford

Reliable Assessment of the Efficacy and Safety of Prolonging the Use of Adjuvant Tamoxifen: A Large, Simple, Randomised Study

RATIONALE: Estrogen can stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells. Hormone therapy using tamoxifen may fight breast cancer by reducing the production of estrogen. It is not yet known if prolonged tamoxifen is more effective than shorter tamoxifen therapy following curative treatment for breast cancer.

PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying giving tamoxifen over a prolonged period of time to see how well it works compared to giving tamoxifen over a shorter period of time in treating patients who have had a breast tumor removed.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Detailed Description

OBJECTIVES:

  • Assess the balance of risks and benefits in prolonging the duration of adjuvant tamoxifen by at least 5 years in patients with curatively treated breast cancer who have already had about 5 years of adjuvant tamoxifen.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized study. After about 5 years of adjuvant tamoxifen, recurrence-free patients are randomized to stop tamoxifen treatment immediately or to continue tamoxifen treatment for at least 5 more years.

Patients are followed annually.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 20,000 patients will be accrued for this study.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

20000

Phase

  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • England
      • Oxford, England, United Kingdom, OX2 6HE
        • Atlas Trial Office

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Curatively treated carcinoma of the breast
  • Currently taking adjuvant tamoxifen

    • Must be substantial uncertainty as to whether or not to continue tamoxifen (i.e., no clear indication or definite contraindication to further treatment with tamoxifen)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

  • Any age

Performance status:

  • Not specified

Life expectancy:

  • Not specified

Hematopoietic:

  • Not specified

Hepatic:

  • Not specified

Renal:

  • Not specified

Other:

  • Not pregnant or nursing
  • No contraindications to receiving tamoxifen
  • No other serious medical problems

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

  • Prior biologic therapy allowed

Chemotherapy:

  • Prior chemotherapy allowed

Endocrine therapy:

  • See Disease Characteristics

Radiotherapy:

  • Prior radiotherapy allowed

Surgery:

  • Prior surgery allowed

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Overall survival (i.e., all-cause mortality)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Specific-cause mortality
Incidence of second primary tumors

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Rodrigo Arriagada, MD, Karolinska Institutet

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 1995

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 1, 1999

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 26, 2003

First Posted (Estimate)

January 27, 2003

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

February 9, 2009

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 6, 2009

Last Verified

October 1, 2002

More Information

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Breast Cancer

Clinical Trials on adjuvant therapy

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