Xeloda and Taxotere – pro

This patient presented de-novo with metastatic breast cancer and Taxotere/Xeloda was prescribed as first line therapy. This regimen was FDA approved on the basis of a phase III study of docetaxel monotherapy and docetaxel plus capecitabine for metastatic breast cancer patients who had received anthracyclines. The overall response rate of the combination group was 42%(n=255), and that of the monotherapy group was 30%(n=256)(p=0.006). The primary endpoints were time to disease progression, and time to treatment failure, and these parameters were superior in the combination arm than in the single arm.

An abstract presented in 2008 ASCO, also demonstrated that this regimen is medically appropriate in first line therapy.. It concluded: “Despite low accrual, XT produces a 6-month progression-free rate equivalent to ET and may prolong PFS. XT is a highly active, non-anthracycline-containing, first-line treatment option for MBC patients previously exposed to adjuvant anthracycline therapy.” Strictly sepaking, these results are not directly applicable to patients who never received antracyclines, such as is the case here.

Saeki T, Takashima S.Capecitabine plus docetaxel combination chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer.Breast Cancer. 2004;11(2):116-20.

O’Shaughnessy J, Miles D, Vukelja S, Moiseyenko V, Ayoub JP, Cervantes G, Fumoleau P, Jones S, Lui WY, Mauriac L, Twelves C, Van Hazel G, Verma S, Leonard R.Superior survival with capecitabine plus docetaxel combination therapy in anthracycline-pretreated patients with advanced breast cancer: phase III trial results.Clin Oncol. 2002 Jun 15;20(12):2812-23.

T. Bachelot, E. Luporsi, A. Bajard, J. Provencal, D. Coefic, C. Platini, D. Dramais, C. Oprea, R. Ferri-Dessens, D. Pérol Randomized trial of first-line docetaxel + capecitabine (XT) versus docetaxel + epirubicin (ET) for metastatic breast cancer (MBC): Efficacy results of ERASME-4/CAPEDOC-EPIDOC. Clin Oncol 26: 2008 (May 20 suppl; abstr 1049)

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