9.5 The fourth cycle (2000)

The fourth cycle of the EBCTCG, whose results are currently being prepared for publication, has included even more data than the third round, with about 38,000 randomized women in trials of local therapies—including comparisons of radiotherapy plus surgery with the same type of surgery alone, more-extensive surgery with less extensive surgery, and more-extensive surgery with less-extensive surgery plus radiotherapy—and about 50,000 randomized women in trials of tamoxifen versus no tamoxifen, and 30,000 in the more interesting question of longer versus shorter durations of tamoxifen therapy, about 50,000 women involved in chemotherapy trials, and 10,000 in trials of ovarian ablation. In addition, for many of the women included in previous EBCTCG cycles, longer follow-up is available.