Treatment Information

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Breast Cancer treatment details. Chemotherapy.

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Survival: monthsCountry:Greece
Toxiciy Grade:5City/State/Province:Thessaloniki
Treatments:ChemotherapyHospital:Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Drugs:Journal:Link
Date:Jul 2005

Description:

Patients: This Phase I/II study involved 68 women with advanced breast cancer. The median age was 57 years. Forty patients had metastases

Treatment: The treatment consisted of three chemotherapy agents: paclitaxel, carboplatin, and gefitinib.

Toxicity: Two patients died during the chemotherapy period. One patient died from an acute, massive pulmonary embolism after the first cycle. The second patient had been hospitalized for febrile neutropenia after the third cycle and died 3 days later from acute mesenteric thrombosis. In addition, grade 3-4 toxicities included neutropenia, anemia, diarrhea, thrombocytopenia, and peripheral neuropathy.

Results: The median overall survival was 15.9 months. Nine patients had a complete response to treatment, and thirty had a partial response. Twenty-one had stable disease. However, the authors concluded that "there is no additional benefit in adding gefitinib to this doublet chemotherapy regimen."

Support: AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Aventis financially supported this study. AstraZeneca manufactures and/or markets gefitinib. Bristol-Myers Squibb manufactures and/or markets paclitaxel and carboplatin.

Correspondence: Dr G. Fountzilas




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