PRIMARY SYSTEMIC TREATMENT WITH WEEKLY DOXORUBICIN MONOTHERAPY IN WOMEN WITH LOCALLY ADVANCED BREAST-CANCER - CLINICAL-EXPERIENCE AND PARAMETERS PREDICTING OUTCOME

Sixty-three patients (median age 64 years) with locally advanced breas t cancer (T3, T4 and/or N2) were treated with primary 'neoadjuvant' ch emotherapy given as weekly doxorubicin monotherapy (14 mg/m(2) per dos e). Seven patients had solitary distant metastasis at the time of diag nosis, Twenty-eight patients (45%) achieved 'partial response' to prim ary chemotherapy. Twenty-nine patients (46%) had 'stable disease', and 6 patients (9%) had 'progressive disease' during treatment, Following chemotherapy, 52 patients were subjected to surgery and another 4 pat ients had surgery performed after radiotherapy, Surgery was considered impossible in,only three patients, After a median observation time of 23 months, local recurrences were observed in 2 patients, one with pr ogressive disease and one with stable disease during chemotherapy. Uni variate analyses revealed that large tumour size, high histological gr ade and high mitotic frequency were associated with poor primary respo nse to chemotherapy. Recent studies have demonstrated a correlation be tween p53-mutations and chemotherapy response.