Ok..
Mom is one of the few ER+ here (Her2 borderline) so I've been looking at all the various chemos and noticing, that in the main, ER- tumors are thought to have higher response rate to chemo.
Then I come across an old (albeit small) piece from the 1980 that seems to suggest a shift (or reversal) has happened along the way. I mean..89% response rate? Could it be that older regimens were/are actually more effective for ER+ w/mets? I suppose one factor could be that Cytoxan is oral and inherently somewhat metronomic. Go to the link and see the tables.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/c...79448/PDFSTART
Estrogen Receptor Status and Response to Chemotherapy
in Advanced Breast Cancer
DAVID T. KIANG, MD, PHD, DANIEL H. FRENNING, MD, JULIETTE GAY, RN, ANNE I . GOLDMAN, PHD, AND
B. J. KENNEDY, MD
Tumor estrogen receptor status in women with advanced breast cancer was correlated with clinical
response to cytotoxic chemotherapy in a retrospective study. Following an extramural review of the clinical
data of 40 patients, 26 responded to chemotherapy (65%).
The response rate in 19 receptor-richtumors was 89% and in 21 receptor-poor tumors, 43% (P < 0.01). The lowest response rate (14%) was
observed in seven postmenopausal patients with receptor-poor tumors. Clinical characteristics of
patients and variants in chemotherapy programs failed to explain the favorable response of receptor-rich
tumors to cytotoxic chemotherapy.
Cancer 46:2814-2817, 1980.