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Fritz P, Dippon J, Müller S, Goletz S, Trautmann C, Pappas X, Ott G, Brauch H, Schwab M, Winter S, Mürdter T, Brinkmann F, Faisst S, Rössle S, Gerteis A, Friedel G. Is Mistletoe Treatment Beneficial in Invasive Breast Cancer? A New Approach to an Unresolved Problem. Anticancer Res 2018; 38:1585-1593. [PMID: 29491089 DOI: 10.21873/anticanres.12388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2017] [Revised: 01/16/2018] [Accepted: 01/17/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND/AIM In this retrospective study, we compared breast cancer patients treated with and without mistletoe lectin I (ML-I) in addition to standard breast cancer treatment in order to determine a possible effect of this complementary treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS This study included 18,528 patients with invasive breast cancer. Data on additional ML-I treatments were reported for 164 patients. We developed a "similar case" method with a distance measure retrieved from the beta variable in Cox regression to compare these patients, after stage adjustment, with their non-ML-1 treated counterparts in order to answer three hypotheses concerning overall survival, recurrence free survival and life quality. RESULTS Raw data analysis of an additional ML-I treatment yielded a worse outcome (p=0.02) for patients with ML treatment, possibly due to a bias inherent in the ML-I-treated patients. Using the "similar case" method (a case-based reasoning approach) we could not confirm this harm for patients using ML-I. Analysis of life quality data did not demonstrate reliable differences between patients treated with ML-I treatment and those without proven ML-I treatment. CONCLUSION Based on a "similar case" model we did not observe any differences in the overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and quality of life data between breast cancer patients with standard treatment and those who in addition to standard treatment received ML-I treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Fritz
- Department of Clinical Pathology, Robert Bosch Hospital, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Jürgen Dippon
- Institute of Stochastics and Applications, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Simon Müller
- Institute of Stochastics and Applications, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Sven Goletz
- Institute of Stochastics and Applications, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Christian Trautmann
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Robert-Bosch-Hospital, Stuttgart, Germany
| | | | - German Ott
- Department of Clinical Pathology, Robert Bosch Hospital, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Hiltrud Brauch
- Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology and University of Tuebingen, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Matthias Schwab
- Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology and University of Tuebingen, Stuttgart, Germany.,Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital Tuebingen, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Stefan Winter
- Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology and University of Tuebingen, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Thomas Mürdter
- Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology and University of Tuebingen, Stuttgart, Germany
| | | | - Simone Faisst
- Onkologischer Schwerpunkt Stuttgart e.V., Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Susanne Rössle
- Onkologischer Schwerpunkt Stuttgart e.V., Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Andreas Gerteis
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Robert-Bosch-Hospital, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Godehard Friedel
- Center for Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery, Klinik Schillerhöhe, Stuttgart-Gerlingen, Germany
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