Hospital Pharmacist
2008;15:198
June 2008

News summary

Benefit of paclitaxel after breast surgery

Adding weekly paclitaxel to standard therapy with fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide following breast cancer surgery may benefit patients, phase III research suggests (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 27 May 2008).

In a study of 1,246 women with operable breast cancer, researchers found that disease-free survival at five years — the primary endpoint — was greater for patients taking paclitaxel than those receiving the standard therapy only (78.5 versus 72.1 per cent, difference 6.4 per cent, 95 per cent confidence interval 1.6–11.2 per cent; P=0.006).

The researchers found that patients receiving paclitaxel had a 23 per cent lower risk of relapse than those in the non-paclitaxel group (hazard ratio 0.77, CI 0.62–0.95; P=0.022)

Sub-analyses indicated that HER2 and hormone receptor status had no bearing on the efficacy of paclitaxel treatment.