Continuous infusional combination chemotherapy in inflammatory breast cancer: a phase II study

Despite the introduction of systemic chemotherapy, inflammatory breast canc er (IBC) remains a disease with a poor prognosis. We performed this phase I I study to evaluate the efficacy of infusional chemotherapy as initial trea tment in patients with IBC. Fifty-four patients with newly diagnosed IBC we re offered infusional chemotherapy and 34 accepted. The schedule consisted of continuous infusional ECF (bolus epirubicin and cisplatin, substituted b y carboplatin or cyclophosphamide in some patients) plus continuous 5-FU, g iven three weekly for six cycles. Following chemotherapy patients went on t o have surgery and/or radiotherapy. The chemotherapy was well tolerated and resulted in an overall response rate of 79% with 35% of patients achieving a complete clinical response. The median response duration, time to progre ssion and overall survival were 12 months (4-89+ months), 12 months (4-89months) and 23 months (7-89+ months), respectively. Patients had a 5 year d isease free and overall survival of 11% and 29%, respectively. Infusional E CF is well tolerated and achieves a high clinical response rate in patients with IBC, but survival results do not appear to be superior to those achie ved with conventional bolus chemotherapy schedules. (C) 2000 Harcourt Publi shers Ltd.