Forty-six patients with metastatic breast cancer who had not received previous chemotherapy for advanced disease entered a phase II trial of weekly chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide (250 mg/m2) + epirubicin (25 mg/m2) for 16 weeks. The overall response rate was 61 % (95 % confidence limits, 47-75 %), with 10 complete and 17 partial responses. Toxicity was mild and confined to nausea and vomiting and asymptomatic neutropenia (except in 2 cases). Sixty-three per cent of patients had no side effects. Weekly cyclophosphamide + epirubicin is an active and nontoxic regimen for patients with metastatic breast cancer who have had no prior anthracycline-containing adjuvant chemotherapy.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BarniS., TanciniG., PaolorossiF., CrispinoS., LissoniP.: A weekly schedule of epirubicin in pretreated metastatic breast cancer (abstract 109).Proc. Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol.,1989.
2.
BerettaG., LocatelliC., TabiadonD., LabiancaR., FaschiniP., LuporiniG.: Epirubicin treatment of advanced breast cancer with the weekly low-dose regimen.Oncology, 44: 6–12, 1987.
3.
Carmo-PereiraJ., CostaF.O., MilesD.W., HenriquesE., RichardsM.A., RubensR.D.: High dose epirubicin as primary chemotherapy in advanced breast carcinoma: a phase II trial.Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol., 27: 394–396, 1991.
4.
GarberJ.E., HendersonI.C.: The use of chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer.Hematol. Oncol. Clin. North. Am., 3: 807–821, 1989.
5.
GundersenS., KvinslandS., KleppO., KvaloeyS., LundE., HoestH.: Weekly adriamycin versus VAC in advanced breast cancer. A randomized trial.Eur. J. Cancer Clin. Oncol., 22: 1431–1434, 1986.
6.
GundersenS.: Weekly adriamycin in the treatment of advanced breast cancer (abstract 902).5th. Proc. Eur. Conf. Clin. Oncol., London, 1989.
7.
HabeshawT., PaulJ., JonesR., StallaroS., StewartM., KayeS.B., SoukopM., SymondsR.P., ReedN.S., RankinE.M.: Epirubicin at two dose levels with prednisolone as treatment for advanced breast cancer: the results of a randomised trial.J. Clip Oncol., 9: 295–304, 1991.
8.
JonesW.G., MattssonW.: Phase II study of weekly low dose 4-epidoxorubicin in advanced postmenopausal breast cancer.Cancer Treat. Rep., 68: 675–678, 1984.
9.
JonesR.B., HollandJ.F., BhardwajS., NortonL., WilfingerC., StrashunA.: A phase I-II study of intensive dose adriamycin for advanced breast cancer.J. Clin. Oncol., 5: 172–177, 1987.
10.
MattssonW., BorgstromS., LandbergT.: A weekly schedule of low-dose doxorubicin in treatment of advanced breast cancer.Clin. Ther., 5: 193–203, 1982.
11.
MillerA.B., HoogstratenB., StaquetM., WinklerA.: Reporting results of cancer treatment.Cancer, 47: 207–214, 1981.
12.
ScheithauerW., ZielinkiC., LudwigH.: Weekly low-dose doxorubicin monotherapy in metastatic breast cancer resistant to previous hormonal and cytostatic treatment. Breast Cancer Res.Treat., 6: 89–93, 1985.
13.
SpecenierP., ThomasJ.: Weekly low-dose doxorubicin in advanced breast cancer.Cancer Treat. Rep., 70: 815, 1986.
14.
SteinerR., StewartJ.F., CantwellB.M., MintonM.J., KnightR.K., RubensR.O.: Adriamycin alone or combined with vincristine in the treatment of advanced breast cancer.Eur. J. Cancer Clin. Oncol., 19: 1555–1557, 1983.
15.
TwelvesC.J., O'ReillyS., ColemanR.E., RichardsM.A., RubensR.D.: Weekly epirubicin for breast cancer with liver metastasis and abnormal liver biochemistry (abstract 1013).5th. Proc. Eur. Conf. Clin. Oncol., London, 1989.
