Chemotherapy in advanced and metastatic cancer breast

ABSTRACT

A retrospective analysis of 120 patients with advanced breast cancer treated with chemotherapy showed that the overall response rate was 34.16%. The response rate was higher for stage III than for stage IV patients, but with lower complete response rate, shorter duration of remission and shorter survival time. Second-line chemotherapy yielded similar results to first line. All regimens yielded comparable results either as a first line or a second line and irrespective of the number of drugs. The subjective response rate exceeded the objective response rate. The response to chemotherapy was influenced by the site of disease and the number of sites involved, the disease free interval and previous response to endocrine therapy. However, age, menstrual status and previous endocrine treatment had little or no effect on response to chemotherapy. Survival of responders exceeded that of non-responders