Z11 Trails

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NSJ2
NSJ2 Member Posts: 227
edited June 2014 in DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ)

Can someone summarize what the "Z11" BC trials are, in a nut shell?

I'd appreciate links too, but would very much like to get a laymen's summary here if possible.

Thank you in advance.

NSJ2

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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited October 2012

    The Z11 trial involved women who were Stage I or Stage II and who were found to have one or two positive nodes.  The question being investigated was whether the removal of more nodes (i.e. doing an axillary node dissection) provided any survival benefit.  The trial found that it did not (over the relatively short term of the trial, 6.2 years median follow-up).

    ACOSOG Z0011: A randomized trial of axillary node dissection in women with clinical T1-2 N0 M0 breast cancer who have a positive sentinel node 

    Since this is the DCIS forum and most of the women looking for information here have DCIS, I want to be clear that this trial does not apply to anyone with DCIS.  This trial is specific to women with invasive cancer who are also node positive.  

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  • Linda-Ranching-in-the-mTns
    Linda-Ranching-in-the-mTns Member Posts: 319
    edited October 2012

    As you probably havel have become very aware -- breast cancers are very different -- so using this particular study as the basis to make your own decisions can only be one of many puzzle pieces. From what I have read: most of the (about 500) women in this trial were ER+, with lobular (as compared to ductal) breast cancer. The women in one target group averaged 54 years of age, and the other group 56. (This was one of the criticisms of the study, some believeing that more younger women should have been included) AND -- All had full breast radiation (which is the major flaw as far as I am concerned, because radiation does basically the same thing to the lymph nodes as removal -- it fries the lymph nodes into little rocks, so that they no longer function).

    Every scientific experiment attempts to control variables -- I just wish they had irradiated HALF of each group (those with full node dissection, and those with only sentinal node removal).

     The good news is that results so far show (after 6 years) that the women in both groups have strinkingly similar (tiny percentages) for amounts of reccurance, and extremely low level of mortality. 

    There are LOTS of good sites discussing the z-11 trials. Just type: " Z 11 Cancer " into your search box. All-in-all good news, and I believe it is changing standard of care, which seems to continue to move towards: Less can be Better.

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