Scroll Up
Scroll Down
Play Play Play Play
Unregistered User
Click here if this is not your Personal Edition
 
Contact Us | Free E-Mail Updates | Journals | Register a colleague
 
 
Breast Cancer
 
   
 
SEARCH   
Doctor's Guide Free CME
Medline
Congress Resource Centre
 

 EXPLORE :
   Most Read News
 All News  All News
 All Webcasts / CME  All Webcasts / CME
 All Cases  All Cases
 Congress Resource Centre  Congress Resource Centre
 All Medical Resources  All Medical Resources
 Medical  My Personal Edition



Warning | Privacy

 

 
 Recent news - Breast Cancer
    Massage Reduces Fluid Volume in Lymphoedema Patients but Does Not Improve Arm Function: Presented at ASTRO - (DGDispatch)
    Patients With Centrally Located and Progesterone-Negative Tumours May Need More Aggressive Treatment Following Breast-Conserving Surgery: Presented at ASTRO - (DGDispatch)
    TopAbstracts in Breast Cancer 11/03/2009 - (DGNews)
    Early-Stage, HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patients at Increased Risk of Recurrence - (DGNews)
    TopAbstracts in Breast Cancer 10/27/2009 - (DGNews)

    News archive

     Recent webcasts/CME - Breast Cancer
    Cutaneous Metastasis of Breast Carcinoma Presenting as Alopecia Neoplastica

    Webcasts/CME archive

     Recent cases - Breast Cancer
      Breast Pseudotumoral Radionecrosis as a Late Radiation-Induced Injury: A Case Report
      Large Family with Both Parents Affected by Distinct BRCA1 Mutations: Implications for Genetic Testing
      Bilateral Swollen Eyelids Occurring During Adjuvant Treatment with Tamoxifen for Early Breast Cancer
      Ruptured Gallbladder as the First Presentation of Breast Cancer
      Synchronous Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma and Primary Extramedullary Plasmacytoma of the Breast

      Cases archive
        




      my personal edition > breast cancer > news
      divider

        E-Mail this DGDispatch to a colleague

      DGDispatch


      Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients With Poor Performance Status Respond Well to Ixabepilone Plus Capecitabine: Presented at SABCS

        By Charlene Laino

        SAN ANTONIO, Tex -- December 15, 2008 -- For patients with metastatic breast cancer who have poor performance status and who show resistance to anthracyclines and taxanes, ixabepilone plus capecitabine improves overall survival, progression-free survival, and tumour response compared with capecitabine alone, according to results of 2 large phase 3 studies, presented at the 31st Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

        Symptomatic metastatic breast cancer patients with poor performance status pose a difficult therapeutic challenge, due to a worse prognosis and greater risk of toxicity from chemotherapy than patients with good performance status, stated PierFranco Conte, MD, University Hospital, Modena, Italy, speaking at a poster presentation here on December 14.

        Dr. Conte and colleagues theorised that ixabepilone -- the first in a new class of antineoplastic agents -- plus capecitabine would offer a new option for such patients. The combination showed consistent clinical benefit compared with capecitabine alone in 2 large clinical trials of patients with metastatic breast cancer who had tumours resistant to anthracycline and a taxane (Thomas ES et al. J Clin Oncol. 2007;25:3399-3406) or pretreated with anthracycline and a taxane (Hortobagyi GN et al. 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology [ASCO] 2008 Breast Cancer Symposium. Abstract 186).

        The researchers sought to better evaluate treatment effect in the subset of patients with a Karnofsky performance status of 70 to 80 by performing a predefined pooled analysis of findings from both the Thomas and Hortobagyi studies.

        Both studies had a similar design. A total of 1,973 patients with metastatic breast cancer who were previously treated with an anthracycline and a taxane were randomised to receive ixabepilone (40 mg/m2 IV over 3 hours, every 3 weeks) plus oral capecitabine (1,000 mg/m2 twice a day for 14 days, every 3 weeks) or oral capecitabine alone (1,250 mg/m2 twice a day for 14 days, every 3 weeks). A total of 606 (31%) patients in the 2 studies had a Karnofsky performance status of 70 to 80; of these, 314 received combination treatment and 292 received capecitabine alone.

        Outcome data on progression-free survival, overall survival, and tumour response were available for 268 patients in the combination arm and 257 patients in the capecitabine monotherapy arm. The median progression-free survival time was 4.6 months in the combination arm compared with 3.1 months in the capecitabine monotherapy arm. This finding corresponded to a 24% reduction in progression-free survival in the capecitabine arm (P = .0021).

        The median overall survival time was 12.3 months in the ixabepilone plus capecitabine arm versus 9.5 months in the capecitabine monotherapy arm. This finding corresponded to a 25% reduction in overall survival in the monotherapy arm (P = .0015).

        The overall response rate was 36% in the combination arm versus 19% in the capecitabine monotherapy arm. Specifically, in the combination arm, 2% of patients had a complete response, 34% had a partial response, and another 40% had stable disease. In the capecitabine monotherapy arm, there were no complete responders, and 19% of patients showed a partial response; another 37% of patients had stable disease.

        There was an increased incidence of adverse events, primarily neutropenia and peripheral neuropathy, associated with combination versus monotherapy, Dr. Conte said. Seventy-one percent of 310 patients in the combination arm for whom safety data were available developed grade 3/4 neutropenia compared with 11% of the 288 patients in the capecitabine monotherapy arm. Twenty-three percent of patients in the combination arm developed peripheral neuropathy compared with 1% in the monotherapy arm.

        Dr. Conte noted that the adverse events were generally manageable by dose reduction or interruption.

        "Ixabepilone plus capecitabine provides a new treatment option for symptomatic patients where the standard of care is single-agent sequential therapy," Dr. Conte concluded.

        Funding for this study was provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.


        [Presentation title: Ixabepilone Plus Capecitabine Improves Overall Survival in Symptomatic Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer Previously Treated With Anthracycline and Taxane in 2 Large Phase III Studies. Abstract 6114]




      E-Mail this DGDispatch to a colleague   To print, use this version






      All contents Copyright (c) 1995-2009 Doctor's Guide Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.



      The NTK initiative. Physicians helping physicians identify Need-To-Know science
         Feedback
      Please rate this article: Strongly DISAGREE...Strongly AGREE NTK logo
      Question 1 - Physicians need to become aware of this information as soon as possible. Question 2 - This information is likely to have an impact on the way physicians practice medicine.
      1
      2
      3
      4
      5
      6
      7
      Send