An analysis on clinical efficacy of low dosage of paclitaxel combined with gemcitabine for patients with metastatic breast cancer / 肿瘤

ABSTRACT

Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy and tolerability of a 3-week regimen of low dosage of paclitaxel (PTX) combined with gemcitabine (GEM) for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients who had been pretreated with antracyclines. Methods: Thirty two MBC patients who received antracyclines chemotherapy were recruited in this study. They were infused with PTX (120 mg/m2) for 3 h on d 1, followed by 30-min intravenous infusion with GEM 900 mg/m2) on d 1 and d 8. The combined chemotherapy was repeated every 21 d as one cycle. Maximum 6 cycles were given. Toxicity was evaluated on all the patients. The clinical efficacy was evaluated on those who had received at least 2 cycles of combined chemotherapy. Results: All of the 32 patients completed 156 cycles of chemotherapy with a median number of five cycles per patient. Four patients (12.5% %) achieved a complete response, 15 patients (46.9%) had a partial response, with an overall objective response rate of 59.4% (95% CI 42.4%-76.4%). Stable disease was documented in 8 patients (25%) while progressive disease occurred in 5 patients (15.6%). There were no differences in response rates between the ER(+) and ER(-) patients, between the patients aged ≥50 years and <50 years, and between the patients with invasive ductal cancer and invasive lobular cancer (P = 0.783, P = 0.328, P = 0.794,respectively). The average follow-up period was 20.2 months, the median time to progression was 10.0 months, and median overall survival time was 20.0 months. Nine patients were alive with no progression at the end of follow-up. Conclusion: The 3-week combined chemotherapy of low dosage of PTX with GEM is effective for breast cancer patients who had been treated with antracyclines. The hematologic and non-hematologic toxicities are well-tolerated.