Weekly paclitaxel in women with heavily pretreated metastatic breast cancer: a retrospective analysis of cases treated at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.
BACKGROUND
Taxane is one of the most effective drugs used for advanced metastatic breast cancer treatment. Conventional 3-weekly regimens are widely used with significant treatment related toxicity. Recently, weekly schedules of taxane were reported to be effective and well tolerated in this patient group. We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy of weekly paclitaxel in women with metastatic breast cancer.


METHODS
Between December 1999 and June 2004, a total of twenty-three patients with histologically confirmed and measurable pretreated metastatic breast cancer were included. The median age was 55 years (range 33 to approximately 73). Their performance status was ECOG < or = 2. All patients had received at least one regimen for metastatic disease. Paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 was administered weekly for 3 weeks per 4-week cycle. WHO response criteria was used as the reference to evaluate the response to treatment.


RESULTS
The response and survival of all patients were assessed. All had prior anthracycline-based chemotherapy; 14 patients (61%) had at least 3 different chemotherapy lines before this regimen. Twenty patients (87%) had at least 2 metastatic sites and 18 (78.3%) had visceral metastasis. The overall response rate was 21.7% with no complete response, while 43.5% had stable disease. The median time to progression was 121 days. Four patients (17.4%) were treated with a trastuzumab-paclitaxel combination, and 2 of them responded. The therapy was well tolerated and there were no grade III/IV toxicities observed. Only 1 patient (4.35%) dropped out because of heart failure.


CONCLUSIONS
Weekly paclitaxel was well tolerated and the response rate was comparable to that previously reported in heavily pretreated patients with metastatic breast cancer. Weekly paclitaxel in combination with other agents is worthy of further investigation.
Lu
Chang-Hsien
CH
Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Lin
Yung-Chang
YC
Chang
Hsien-Kun
HK
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; D017239:Paclitaxel