title: Combination of 125I brachytherapy and chemotherapy for unresectable recurrent breast cancer: A retrospective control study.
abstract: Recurrent breast cancer remains an incurable malignancy and cannot be removed by surgery in the majority of cases. This study aimed to explore the feasibility and efficacy of the combination of I brachytherapy and chemotherapy for the treatment of unresectable recurrent breast cancer. Patients with unresectable recurrent breast cancer treated between January 2011 and December 2014 with a combination of I brachytherapy and capecitabine or gemcitabine were evaluated and outcomes were compared with those of women treated with capecitabine or gemcitabine in conventional dose as a monotherapy. Of 61 patients evaluated, 28 received the combination treatment and 33 received capecitabine or gemcitabine monotherapy. The combination of I brachytherapy and chemotherapy resulted in a significant improvement in progression-free survival versus capecitabine or gemcitabine monotherapy (median, 17.8 vs 11.4 months; hazard ratio [HR], 0.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.23-0.84; P = 0.013). The objective response rate (ORR) was significantly higher with the combination (82.1%) than with monotherapy (54.5%; P = 0.022), and the rate of pain relief was higher in the combination arm (100% vs 73.6%; P = 0.038). There was no significant improvement for overall survival (median, 30.1 vs 27.2 months; HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.47-1.44; P = 0.496). There were no serious complications detected during the follow-up period, any grade toxicities were comparable between treatment arms. In conclusion, the combination of I brachytherapy and second-line chemotherapy is superior to chemotherapy alone and is an effective and safe therapy for unresectable recurrent breast cancer. However, further investigation and much larger scale randomized controlled trials with long-term follow-up are needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Breast Surgery Department of Ultrasound Diagnosis, The Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
authors.forename: Qixing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Qinghong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Weiping
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lian
authors.forename: Qinguo
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.forename: Changyuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001918:Brachytherapy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D000069287:Capecitabine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D000093542:Gemcitabine
chemical_list: D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D000069287:Capecitabine; D000093542:Gemcitabine