Controlled clinical trial of L-dopa and nafoxidine in advanced breast cancer: an E.O.R.T.C. study.

L-Dopa lowers plasma prolactin levels, and there have been reports that patients with advanced breast cancer have been successfully treated with L-dopa. To test the potential value of L-dopa in this disease a randomized clinical trial of L-dopa and nafoxidine (as the reference compound) was conducted in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer. Objective remissions were obtained in sever out of 36 patients (19%) treated with nafoxidine but in none out of 40 patients treated with L-dopa. L-Dopa in the dose schedule used seems to be ineffective in advanced breast cancer.     

Comparative trial of endocrine versus cytotoxic treatment in advanced breast cancer.

Ninety-two women with advanced breast cancer were allocated at random to receive either cytotoxic or endocrine treatment. Out of 45 women included in the cytotoxic treatment group, 22 (49%) achieved complete or partial remission of their disease, whereas of the 47 included in the endocrine treatment group, only 10 (21%) achieved such remission. Significantly longer survival times in the cytotoxic treatment group were most apparent among premenopausal women, 75% of such patients responding to cytotoxic drugs (median survival 46 weeks) compared with only 11% benefiting from ovarian ablation (median survival 12 weeks). In postmenopausal women with predominantly soft-tissue disease, however, additive hormonal treatment with tamoxifen produced remission rates and survival times equivalent to those produced by cytotoxic drugs.