ABSTRACT
Purpose: To study the short-term efficacy and toxicity of the neoajuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin (EPI) plus paclitaxel( TAX) in treatment of patients with breast cancer. Methods: 20 patients with stage Ⅱ,Ⅲ breast cancer were treated with paclitaxel plus epirubicin (TE) for 2 - 4 cycles every 3 weeks, their clinical response and the toxicity were assessed after 2-4 cycles of neoajuvant chemotherapy, and they are compared with those of the patients treated with vinorelbine plus epirubicin( VE) as neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Patients in TE arm received epirubicin 60 mg/m2 by intravenous injection on d 1, paclitaxel 150 mg/m2 by 3-hour continuous infusion on d 2, 3 weeks was 1 cycle. Patients assigned to the VE arm received epirubicin 60 mg/m2 by intravenous injection on d 1, vinorelbine 30 mg/m by intravenous injection on d 1 and d 8, 4 weeks was 1 cycle. All patients were treated by modified radical operation after neoajuvant chemotherapy. Results: The overall response rate( RR) was 80% (16/20) both in TE arm and VE arm. There were 3(15%) clinical complete response( cCR) and 2(10%) pathologic complete response ( pCR) in every arm. No patient showed progressive disease. A higher proportion of RR and pCR was observed in patients with 4 cycles of neoajuvant chemotherapy than those with 2 cycles in the two groups. The major toxicity, including leukopenia, gastroenteric reaction, flushing of face and phlebitis, were similar in both groups, but fatigue, alopecia and neurotoxicity were more severe in VE arm than in TE arm(P
