Results and long term follow-up for 1581 patients with metastatic breast carcinoma treated with standard dose doxorubicin-containing chemotherapy - Areference

BACKGROUND. The authors report results and long term follow-up for 1581 pat ients with metastatic breast carcinoma treated with doxorubicin-containing combination chemotherapy at a single institution; this report is meant to s erve as a reliable reference for single-arm studies of newer therapies in t his patient population. METHODS, Prospectively collected data from 18 successive daxorubicin-contai ning protocol for the treatment of metastatic breast carcinoma were evaluat ed. RESULTS. The response rate was 65.0% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 62.5-67 .3%), complete response (CR) rate was 16.6% (95% CI: 14.8-18.6%), and parti al response (PR) rate was 48.5% (95% CI: 46.0-50.9%). Median progression fr ee survival (PFS) was 11.5 months (95% CI: 10.9-12.3 months) and median ove rall survival (OS) was 21.3 months (95% CI: 20.3-22.7 months). Survival cor related with response to therapy; median PFS and OS were 22.4 and 41.8 mont hs, respectively, for the patients who achieved CR (n = 263) and 14 and 24. 6 months, respectively, for PR patients (n = 766). The median OS of patient s who had progressive disease during chemotherapy was 3.8 months. The respo nse rate, PFS and OS correlated with number of organs involved and especial ly with tumor burden. Patients with hormone receptor-positive tumors had a similar response rate to that of patients with hormone receptor negative tu mors but had significantly longer PFS (medians of 14.3 and 8.7 months, resp ectively) and OS (medians of 28.6 and 18.1 months, respectively). CONCLUSIONS. In patients with metastatic breast carcinoma, doxorubicin-cont aining chemotherapy had a response rate of 65% and a CR rate of 16.6%. PFS and OS were 11.5 months and 21.3 months, respectively, for all responders a nd 22.4 months and 41.8 months, respectively, for those who had CR. Cancer 1999;85: 104-11. (C) 1999 American Cancer Society.