Dr. Shulman on the CALGB 40101 Trial

Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, chief of staff, senior vice president for medical affairs, director, Center for Global Cancer Medicine, director, Department of Regional Strategy and Development, chief, Division of General Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the results of the CALGB 40101 trial.

The trial, which compared the efficacy of adjuvant cyclophosphamide (AC) and doxorubicin versus paclitaxel, showed that paclitaxel is not equivalent to the AC combination, Shulman says.

Shulman says all statistical analyses showed that the AC combination is still the most effective treatment and that combination chemotherapy is essential. Unfortunately, Shulman says, AC is more toxic. Although the AC arm of the study had more occurrences of leukemia and cardiac death, it is still a better regimen overall.