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Breast Cancer treatment details. Chemotherapy.

Texas Oncology, Dallas, Texas, United States.

Survival: monthsCountry:United States
Toxiciy Grade:4City/State/Province:Dallas, Texas
Treatments:ChemotherapyHospital:Texas Oncology
Drugs:Journal:Link
Date:Aug 2005

Description:

Patients: This Phase III study involved 449 women with advanced breast cancer, of whom 394 were assessed. All patients had previously received an anthracycline-containing chemotherapy regimen. The patients were randomly assigned to two groups. Group A had 225 women (189 assessable) with a median age of 56. These women had a median number of two metastatic sites and relapsed at 20.3 months (median) after the beginning of their last treatment.

Treatment: In Group A, the treatment consisted of one chemotherapeutic agent: docetaxel.

Toxicity: In Group A, four patients died during treatment (three of infection, one of gastrointestinal bleeding). Grade 3-4 toxicities were observed in 207 patients, including neutropenia, anemia, thrombocytopenia, asthenia, stomatitis, infection, neurosensory toxicity, peripheral edema, nausea, diarrhea, and neuromotor toxicity.

Results: The median overall survival was 15.4 months for Group A. The authors concluded for their study, "docetaxel ... demonstrated superior efficacy compared with paclitaxel ... , providing significant clinical benefit in terms of survival and time to disease progression, with a numerically higher response rate and manageable toxicities."

Support: Aventis Pharmaceuticals financially supported this study, and many of the authors have been employees or consultants. Many authors also disclosed holding stock, receiving research funding, or receiving honoraria from Aventis. Aventis manufactures and markets docetaxel.

Correspondence: Steve E. Jones, MD


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