The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7253 p818
14 June 2003

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Gemcitabine improves progression rates in breast cancer patients

Women with metastatic breast cancer gain more benefit from gemcitabine (Gemzar) plus paclitaxel (Taxol) therapy than from paclitaxel alone, according to an interim analysis of a phase III trial.

Dr Joyce O'Shaughnessy, co-director of breast cancer research at the Baylor Sammons breast cancer centre in Dallas, presented data from the trial at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

She explained that women treated with the combination therapy experienced a significant delay in the progression of their disease compared with women who received paclitaxel alone (median time to progression 5.4 months versus 3.5 months, P=0.0013). Overall response rate was also better for patients treated with the gemcitabine/paclitaxel combination (39.3 per cent versus 25.6 per cent, P=0.0007).

Non-haematological toxicity was manageable in both treatment groups. However, haematological toxicity was more pronounced among patients who received gemcitabine — 17.2 per cent of patients developed neutropenia compared with 6.6 per cent of patients treated with paclitaxel alone.

The study involved 529 women who had received previous anthracycline therapy but had not been treated for metastatic breast cancer.

The Journal attended the 39th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, held in Chicago, Illinois, from 31 May until 3 June, courtesy of Eli Lilly. It was attended by more than 25,000 cancer specialists