Nonpegylated liposomal doxorubicin liposomal doxorubicin, (Myocet™; Sopherion Therapeutics, Inc Canada, and Cephalon, Europe) (NPLD; Myocet®) in combination with trastuzumabHerceptin® (Hoffmann-La ...Roche) has shown promising activity and cardiac safety. We conducted a randomized phase III trial of first-line NPLD plus trastuzumab and paclitaxel (Pharmachemie B.V.) (MTP) versus trastuzumab plus paclitaxel (TP) in patients with human epidermal growth factor 2 receptor (HER2)-positive metastatic breast cancer.
Patients were randomly assigned to NPLD (M, 50 mg/m2 every 3 weeks for six cycles), trastuzumab (T, 4 mg/kg loading dose followed by 2 mg/kg weekly), and paclitaxel (P, 80 mg/m2 weekly) or T + P at the same doses until progression or toxicity. The primary efficacy outcome was progression-free survival (PFS).
One hundred and eighty-one patients were allocated to receive MTP, and 183 to TP. Median PFS was 16.1 and 14.5 months with MTP and TP, respectively hazard ratio (HR) 0.84; two-sided P = 0.174. In patients with estrogen receptor (ER)- and progesterone receptor (PR)-negative tumors, PFS was 20.7 and 14.0 months, respectively HR 0.68; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.47–0.99. Median overall survival (OS) was 33.6 and 28.9 months with MTP and TP, respectively (HR 0.79; two-sided P = 0.083). In ER- and PR-negative tumors, OS was 38.2 and 27.9 months, respectively (HR 0.63; 95% CI 0.42–0.93). The frequency of adverse events was higher with MTP, but there was no significant difference in cardiac toxicity between treatment arms.
The trial failed to demonstrate a significant clinical improvement with the addition of M to TP regimen. The clinical benefit observed in an exploratory analysis in the ER- and PR-negative population deserves consideration for further clinical trials.
NCT00294996.
Presented herein is a clinical study comprising 48 patients (42 men and 6 women) of working age (40-70 years), all of whom are suffering from locally advanced oropharyngeal cancer. A modern approach ...is applied to treat these patients,i.e., neoadjuvant targeted therapy, taking into account the biological profile of the tumor. The use of gefitinib causes an antitumor effect in 90.5% of cases as opposed to 56.5% when no drug is applied.
The European Cooperative Trial in Operable breast cancer (ECTO) randomly tested whether efficacy of adjuvant doxorubicin followed by i.v. cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF; ...doxorubicin-->CMF, arm A) could be improved by adding paclitaxel (doxorubicin/paclitaxel-->CMF) as adjuvant (arm B) or primary systemic therapy (PST, arm C). We report here feasibility, tolerability, locoregional antitumor activity, and breast conservation rate.
A total of 1,355 women entered the study. Feasibility and safety were compared in arm A versus arms B plus C. Surgical findings were compared in arms A plus B versus arm C.
Grade 3 or 4 National Cancer Institute toxicities were low (<5%) in all arms. Neuropathy was more frequent in the paclitaxel-containing arms (grade 2, 20.5% versus 5.0%; grade 3, 1.3% versus 0.2%). At 31 months of follow-up, asymptomatic drop of left ventricular ejection fraction was similar in all arms, whereas symptomatic cardiotoxicity was recorded in three patients (0.5%) in A and in three patients (0.3%) in B plus C. PST induced clinical complete plus partial remission in 78%, with an in-breast pathologic complete response rate of 23% and an in-breast plus axilla pathologic complete response rate of 20%. In the multivariate analysis, only estrogen receptor (ER) status was significantly associated with pathologic complete response (odds ratio for ER negative, 5.77; 95% confidence interval, 3.49-9.52; P<0.0001). PTS induced a significant axillary downstaging (P<0.001), and breast sparing surgery was feasible in 65% versus 34% (P<0.001).
Doxorubicin/paclitaxel-->CMF is feasible, safe, and well tolerated. Given as PST, it is markedly active, allowing for breast-sparing surgery in a large fraction of patients.
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