Abstract:

Objective

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral capecitabine in combination with docetaxel for patients with anthracycline-resistant advanced breast carcinoma.

Methods

Forty-one patients with anthracyclineresistant advanced breast cancer received oral capecitabine 1000-1250 mg/m² twice daily，days 1-14，plus i.v.docetaxel 60-75 mg/m² on day 1 or 30-37.5 mg/m² on days 1 and 8 of each 21 day treatment cycle.Every patient was administered at least 2 cycles and with a median of 4 cycles （2-8 cycles）.

Results

All 41 patients were evaluable for safety and 38 for efficacy.The overall combination chemotherapy objective response rate was 57.9% including complete responses（CR）in 4（10.5%） patients，paritical responses（PR）in 18（47.4%） patients，stable disease （SD） in 11 （28.9%） patients， and progressive disease （PD） in 5 （13.2%） patients.Disease control rate（CR+PR+SD）was 86.8%.The median time to disease progression or TTP was 9.1 months.The main side effects were hematologic and gastrointestinal toxicities including grade 3-4 leukopenia in 5 patients （12.2% ）and nausea and vomiting in 1 patient.

Conclusions

Capecitabine and docetaxel combination regimen has important antitumor activity in the treatment of anthracyclin-resistant advanced breast cancer patients，with an acceptable safety profile in this setting， especially for older patients.It may be regarded as the salvage chemotherapy afte r anthracycline regimen has failed.

Key words: Capecitabine, ocetaxel, Advanced breast carcinoma, Anthracycline