Octreotide in the treatment of lymphorrhea after axillary node dissection: a prospective randomized controlled trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Octreotide.

The aim of the study the researchers describe in this article was to determine whether octreotide has a role in the treatment of post axillary lymphadenectomy lymphorrhea.

Why It Was Studied

Axillary lymph node dissection for staging and local control of nodal disease is an integral part of breast cancer therapy.

Octreotide is a hormone with general antisecretory effects that has been used to control lymphorrhea in thoracic duct injury and after radical neck dissection.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 261 patients taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, women only.

Two hundred sixty-one consecutive patients with various stages of breast cancer who underwent axillary lymph node dissection were randomized and followed for 7 years.

Of the 261 patients undergoing axillary node dissection, 136 were assigned to the control group and 125 composed the treatment group.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

Because people in this Octreotide study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

The methods mention a period of 7 years.

This is a prospective randomized controlled trial.

The control group and the treatment group were evaluated for amount and duration of lymphorrhea as well as inflammatory and infectious complications.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal, Axilla, Breast Neoplasms, Chemotherapy, Adjuvant, Exudates and Transudates, Length of Stay and Lymph.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Octreotide in 261 patients over 7 years.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2003 (Journal of the American College of Surgeons), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Octreotide compound page, all human trials.