Aim: Weekly paclitaxel is widely used in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Our aim was to test its efficacy and tolerability as a second-line therapy for MBC in daily oncology practice.
Patients and methods: Paclitaxel (90 mg/m(2)) was given intravenously three times weekly in a 4-week cycle to 91 patients with disease progression after hormonal (42%) or cytostatic therapy (57%). The median age was 54 years; metastatic sites were the lung (39%), liver (52%) and bone (47%). 64% of patients had more than one site of metastasis.
Results: Median time-to-progression was 7.5 months (range=6.5-8.5 months) and median overall survival time was 20.1 months (range=13.7-26.5 months). We observed 10 complete (12%) and 37 partial (43%) responses (an overall response rate of 55%). Severe side-effects were rare (grade 3-4 neutropenia 13% and septic episodes in three cases).
Conclusion: Weekly paclitaxel was shown to be an effective and well-tolerated treatment for advanced breast cancer.
Keywords: Breast cancer; docetaxel; metastasis; paclitaxel; survival; time-to-progression.