# Postoperative radiotherapy in high-risk premenopausal women with breast cancer who receive adjuvant chemotherapy. Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group 82b Trial

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-overgaard-n-engl-j-med/  
OnCo record `paper-overgaard-n-engl-j-med` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Paper cited by one trial page, indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 9395428 and published in New England Journal of Medicine; the citing page links this DOI, which is how the record was matched.

## Summary

Background: Irradiation after mastectomy can reduce locoregional recurrences in women with breast cancer, but whether it prolongs survival remains controversial. We conducted a randomized trial of radiotherapy after mastectomy in high-risk premenopausal women, all of whom also received adjuvant systemic chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF).

Methods: A total of 1708 women who had undergone mastectomy for pathological stage II or III breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive eight cycles of CMF plus irradiation of the chest wall and regional lymph nodes (852 women) or nine cycles of CMF alone (856 women). The median length of follow-up was 114 months. The end points were locoregional recurrence, distant metastases, disease-free survival, and overall survival.

Results: The frequency of locoregional recurrence alone or with distant metastases was 9 percent among the women who received radiotherapy plus CMF and 32 percent among those who received CMF alone (P<0.001). The probability of survival free of disease after 10 years was 48 percent among the women assigned to radiotherapy plus CMF and 34 percent among those treated only with CMF (P<0.001). Overall survival at 10 years was 54 percent among those given radiotherapy and CMF and 45 percent among those who received CMF alone (P<0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that irradiation after mastectomy significantly improved disease-free survival and overall survival, irrespective of tumor size, the number of positive nodes, or the histopathological grade.

Conclusions: The addition of postoperative irradiation to mastectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy reduces locoregional recurrences and prolongs survival in high-risk premenopausal women with breast cancer.

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 9395428 (DOI 10.1056/nejm199710023371401). Matched by DOI alone: one trial page cites this DOI among its external links (the pages are listed under Related), and this page was written so that the citation resolves inside OnCo. No figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: New England Journal of Medicine
- Year: 1997
- DOI: 10.1056/nejm199710023371401
- Authors: Overgaard M, Hansen PS, Overgaard J, et al.
- What it means: One trial page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
- Caveats: Matched to the citing OnCo records by DOI alone; the summary reproduces the Europe PMC abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.

## Sources

- N Engl J Med 1997: https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm199710023371401
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9395428/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/9395428

## Connected records

- trials: [DBCG 82b and 82c](https://onco.cc/trials/dbcg-82bc/)
- journals: [New England Journal of Medicine](https://onco.cc/journals/nejm/)

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