The impact of actual body weight-based chemotherapy dosing and body size on adverse events and outcome in older patients with breast cancer: Results from Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) trial 49907 (Alliance A151436)

J Geriatr Oncol. 2018 May;9(3):228-234. doi: 10.1016/j.jgo.2017.11.007. Epub 2017 Dec 8.

Abstract

Objective: Actual weight-based (AWB) chemotherapy dosing is recommended for obese patients in the 2012 ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline. CALGB 49907, which utilized ABW-based adjuvant chemotherapy dosing, was a phase 3 trial in women age≥65years with early stage breast cancer, providing the opportunity to examine impact of such dosing on toxicities and outcome in older patients with breast cancer.

Materials and methods: Adverse event data were available for 615 of 633 enrolled patients. Objectives were to assess grade≥3 hematologic/non-hematologic toxicities by treatment arm, age, study entry BSA/BMI, and relapse-free (RFS) and overall survival (OS) by BSA/BMI.

Results: The 615 patients were sub-grouped by BSA (quartiles) and standard BMI categories, with BMI underweight/normal weight categories combined. Overall, grade≥3 non-hematologic and hematologic toxicities occurred in 39.8% and 28.3% of patients, respectively. There were no significant differences in grade≥3 toxicities among BSA quartiles. However, more grade≥3 hematologic toxicities occurred in the underweight/normal weight BMI subgroup compared to overweight/obese subgroups (p=0.048). Type of chemotherapy and age had no impact on toxicity occurrence by BSA/BMI categories. RFS was superior in the 25th-50th BSA percentile patients in univariate analysis (p=0.042), as was OS in both univariate and multivariate analyses (p=0.007, p=0.009, respectively). No differences in RFS or OS were found by BMI categories.

Conclusion: Obesity was not correlated with adverse relapse or survival outcome, and grade≥3 toxicities were not greater with ABW-based dosing. This supports safety and efficacy of ABW-based dosing as per the 2012 ASCO clinical practice guideline. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00024102 (49907).

Keywords: Actual body weight-based chemotherapy dosing; Breast cancer; Elderly; Outcome; Toxicity.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial, Phase III
  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / complications
  • Adenocarcinoma / drug therapy*
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Body Mass Index
  • Body Size
  • Breast Neoplasms / complications
  • Breast Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Chemotherapy, Adjuvant / adverse effects*
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Obesity / complications*
  • Outcome Assessment, Health Care
  • Retrospective Studies

Associated data

  • ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT00024102