A multicenter phase II trial of docetaxel and capecitabine as salvage treatment in anthracycline- and taxane-pretreated patients with metastatic breast cancer

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of docetaxel plus capecitabine (DC) combination as salvage treatment in anthracycline-and taxane-pretreated patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Patients and treatment Patients with MBC who had disease progression after initial chemotherapy with anthracyclines (n = 29; 100 %) and taxanes (n = 11; 37.9 %) were treated with oral capecitabine 950 mg/m(2) twice daily on days 1-14 and docetaxel 75 mg/m(2) on day 1 every 3 weeks. Nineteen (65.5 %) patients received this regimen as second line and 10 (34.5 %) as >= 3rd line of therapy. All patients were evaluable for response and toxicity. Results Complete response occurred in two (6.9 %) patients and partial response in eleven (37.9 %) for an overall response rate of 44.8 % (95 % CI 26.7-62.9 %). Eleven women (37.9 %) had stable disease and five (17.2 %) progressive disease. Of the eleven patients previously treated with anthracyclines and taxanes, five (45.5 %) responded to DC combination. The median duration of response was 5.7 months (range 3.4-64.2), the median time to disease progression 9.3 months (range 1.2-58), and the median overall survival 25.5 months. No toxic death occurred. Neutropenia grade 4 occurred in 58.6 % of patients and three of them (10.3 %) developed neutropenic fever. Non-hematological toxicities were manageable with grade 3 hand-foot syndrome occurring in 6.9 % of the patients, fatigue in 3.4 %, and neurotoxicity in 3.4 %. Conclusion The DC combination is a valuable regimen as salvage treatment in anthracycline-or anthracycline and taxane-pretreated patients with MBC.