Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and the toxicity profile of the sequential administration of doxorubicin and docetaxel as first-line chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer (MBC).
Patients and methods: Eighty-one patients received a total of 436 cycles of chemotherapy: 236 of doxorubicin (75 mg/m2) and 200 of docetaxel (100 mg/m2 every 21 days). The first 35 patients received doxorubicin every 14 days with G-CSF support, and in the other 46 cases doxorubicin was administered every 21 days without G-CSF.
Results: After entire treatment the overall response rate was 65% (18 complete responses). With a median follow-up of 19 months (range, 1-48 months), the median time to progression was 11.3 months and the median survival time was 31 months. As expected, febrile neutropenia was the most important toxicity and it appeared in 26 cycles (6%) and 19 patients (23%). In the patients that received doxorubicin every 14 days, the febrile neutropenia incidence was higher during docetaxel treatment, especially after its first administration.
Conclusions: The dose and schedule of doxorubicin and docetaxel used in this trial seems to be active in first-line treatment of patients with MBC. The toxicity profile appears to be better than observed with concomitant schedules.