Survival outcomes associated with chemotherapy treatment in a cohort of women with breast cancer in Southern India

Abstract

The objective of this study was to explore the
outcomes associated with pharmacological management of
breast cancer in a tertiary care hospital in Udupi district
of South Karnataka, India. An interview cum survey
approach was used to collect the data. Patient age varied
from 25-73 years, (mean age 47.23, SD=9.7).Out of 303
women, 53% were premenopausal and the rest of them
were post-menopausal. Hormone responsiveness of tumors
was found to be 57% as ER +ve. Among the subjects
81.5% were treated with chemotherapy by different drug
regimens. All the ER/PR+ve cases were prescribed with
tamoxifen /aromatase inhibitors for 5 years after the
preliminary treatments, according to the menopausal
status. The symptom free survival was estimated for each
regimen by Kaplan Meir Survival analysis. The survival
curve for regimen I (Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide)
was 11.01yrs, for regimen II (5 Fluorouracil, adriamycin
and cyclophosphamide) was 2.52 years and for regimen III
(Adriamycin, cyclophosphamide and taxol) was 1.10 years.
Cox proportional hazards model regression results
confirmed statistically significant correlations between
survival and adherence to treatment and stage of cancer at
the time of diagnosis as survival predictors (Hazards
Ratio=6.77, 95% CI=3.15-14.55, p=<0.001, and Hazards
Ratio=0.10, 95% CI=0.05-0.22, P<0.001 respectively for
adherence and stage).