Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0006142 (breast cancer)
 160,383 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

After demonstration of the marked antitumor activity against metastatic breast cancer of paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ), other clinical trials explored the possibility of combining this new active agent with other cytotoxic drugs with proven efficacy against breast carcinoma. Paclitaxel plus doxorubicin, thought to be the most effective single agents against breast cancer, yielded remission rates ranging from 60% to 80%, including some complete remissions. Schedule-dependent toxic interactions were observed when paclitaxel preceded the administration of doxorubicin. Paclitaxel by 3-hour infusion plus doxorubicin by bolus proved to be a highly tolerable regimen, with overall remission rates in excess of 90% and complete remission rates approaching 50%. A paclitaxel plus cisplatin combination has been studied at numerous schedules and doses with variable activity and tolerability, although one group in Vancouver, Canada, reported an 85% overall response rate with the combination administered on a 14-day schedule in previously treated patients, most of whom had received doxorubicin. Paclitaxel also has been combined with cyclophosphamide, mitoxantrone, edatrexate, 5-fluorouracil, and other agents for the treatment of breast cancer. Of interest are recent reports on paclitaxel and vinorelbine, showing this combination to be clearly active, with good tolerability and rapid recovery after myelosuppression. Trials of this combination are ongoing with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor support, on an every-14-day schedule. The doxorubicin/paclitaxel doublet remains the most promising in terms of activity, although other combinations with a high degree of activity and good tolerance are being sought.
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PMID:Paclitaxel-containing combination chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. 862 39

Adjuvant chemotherapy has a real but modest impact on the disease-free and overall survival of patients with breast cancer. Recent attempts to improve its effectiveness have focused on dose intensity and new agents. Sequential therapy maximized dose intensity while limiting overlapping toxicity. Sequential therapy using doxorubicin followed by cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/5-fluorouracil (CMF) has been found superior in patients with high-risk resectable breast cancer. The novel chemotherapy agent paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) is now known to be highly active in advanced breast cancer and appears to be clinically non-cross-resistant with doxorubicin. Therefore, this drug is being studied as a component of the next generation of adjuvant chemotherapy regimens. The most appropriate way to incorporate paclitaxel has not yet been defined, but its concurrent administration with other agents has, in some cases, been troublesome. Based on the demonstrated advantage of the sequential plan for doxorubicin and CMF, we conducted a series of pilot trials testing sequential high-dose therapy. Initially, we studied multiple cycles of doxorubicin followed by cyclophosphamide; we later added paclitaxel to this regimen. These phase II studies demonstrate the feasibility of sequential therapy with doxorubicin, paclitaxel, and cyclophosphamide, and early disease-free survival results are promising. Cooperative group projects are under way or planned to further define the activity of these regimens.
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PMID:Sequential adjuvant therapy: the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center experience. 862 40

Several clinical studies worldwide have demonstrated clearly the remarkable activity of paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) in treating metastatic breast cancer. Future directions should focus on two strategic points: the optimal combination of paclitaxel with other cytotoxic drugs and the most appropriate time to administer a paclitaxel-containing combination. The Milan experience using doxorubicin plus paclitaxel indicated an objective response rate of 95% (complete remissions, 41%) among chemotherapy-naive patients with disseminated breast cancer. This very high response rate was recently confirmed in a study involving 12 women with primary inoperable disease (stage IIIB). To avoid cardiac effects, only four treatment cycles were used; the excellent tumor shrinkage was followed by mastectomy. Since no signs of myocardial toxicity were detected, we are currently testing the same drug schedule in women with smaller breast tumors (eg, 2.5 to 5.0 cm largest diameter) in an attempt to increase the frequency of pathologic complete remission following breast-conserving surgery. Thus, future research programs should exploit the efficacy of paclitaxel plus doxorubicin (or epirubicin) in the early stages of breast cancer. In turn, such studies should enable research physicians to build up more effective strategies with preoperative (neoadjuvant) and postoperative (adjuvant) breast cancer treatments.
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PMID:Future developments for paclitaxel in the treatment of breast cancer. 862 41

The results of both retrospective and prospective studies suggest that the effectiveness of systemic adjuvant chemotherapy with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide for breast cancer may be related to the dose intensity of these agents. Recent trials also have demonstrated the high activity of paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) against metastatic breast cancer. Clinically, paclitaxel appears to be noncross-resistant with doxorubicin, but the unique and overlapping toxicities of these three agents might preclude concurrent adjuvant administration. A possible solution is sequential rather than concurrent administration, an approach that kinetic modelling predicts to be superior. A pilot study testing dose-intensive sequential administration of doxorubicin/paclitaxel/cyclophosphamide enrolled 42 patients with a median age of 42 years who had resected breast cancer metastatic to four or more ipsilateral axillary lymph nodes. Intravenous treatment, given at 14-day intervals, began with three cycles of doxorubicin 90 mg/m2, followed by three cycles of paclitaxel 250 mg/m2, given as a 24-hour infusion, and, finally, three cycles of cyclophosphamide 3 g/m2. Selected patients received radiotherapy. The median number of positive lymph nodes was eight (range, four to 25), and the median tumor size was 3.0 cm (range, 0 to 11.0 cm). Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor support was given. Both hematologic and non-hematologic toxicity were substantial but manageable. Hospital admission was necessary in 62 (17%) of 369 chemotherapy cycles in 29 patients (69%). As planned, the median intertreatment interval was 14 days through all nine cycles of therapy, and the median delivered dose intensity exceeded 98% for all three agents. The median follow-up from local control surgery in December 1994 was 448 days (range, 82 to 632 days). Three patients (7.2%) had disease relapses, one during the doxorubicin portion of treatment and two (4.9%) who had completed treatment with all three agents. Sequential dose-intensive therapy with doxorubicin/paclitaxel/cyclophosphamide has manageable toxicity and, with short follow-up, is a promising new regimen suitable for randomized testing.
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PMID:Sequential adjuvant therapy with doxorubicin/paclitaxel/cyclophosphamide for resectable breast cancer involving four or more axillary nodes. 864 65

Paclitaxel (Taxol) is a natural product with a broad spectrum of activity against various solid tumors. This report includes nineteen patients with advanced breast cancer who have not previously received chemotherapy for metastatic disease. Fifteen patients had received adjuvant chemotherapy, eight of which were doxorubicin based. Patients were treated with 135 mg/m2 over 24 hours by continuous infusion given every 21 days. There were 2 complete and 4 partial responses for an objective response rate of 32% (95% C.I.: 14%, 57%) and eight patients or 42% with stable disease. Three of eight patients (38%) who had received adjuvant doxorubicin did respond to paclitaxel. Responses occurred in lung, liver, and soft tissue. The primary toxicity was hematologic with 13 hospitalizations for febrile neutropenia in 180 cycles (7%). Paclitaxel has moderate activity in a small number of patients with metastatic breast cancer at the dose of 135 mg/m2 over 24 hours in this study.
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PMID:A phase II trial of paclitaxel (Taxol) as first line treatment in advanced breast cancer. 872 49

It has been reported that breast tumors that overexpress c-erbB-2/neu are less responsive to certain adjuvant chemotherapy regimens than those that express a normal amount of the gene product. To investigate whether overexpression of the c-erbB-2/neu-encoded p185 can indeed lead to increased chemoresistance in breast cancers, we introduced the human c-erbB-2/neu gene into the very low p185-expressing MDA-MB435 human breast cancer cells and examined Taxol sensitivities among the parental MDA-MB-435 cells and stable transfectants which express increased levels of p185. The p185-overexpressing MDA-MB-435 transfectants were more resistant to Taxol than the parental cells. The increased Taxol resistance was not accompanied by changes in doubling time and S-phase fraction. The increased Taxol resistance was independent from oncogenic transformation since it was observed only in c-erbB-2/neu-transformed cells and not ras-transformed cells when oncogene-transformed NIH3T3 cells were examined. To study whether p185 induced Taxol resistance through the mdr-1 pathway, we examined the mdr-l-encoded p170 levels in these transfectants. The MDA-MB-435 cells expressed very low levels of p170 and there was no increase of p170 expression in the p185-overexpressing MDA-MB-435 transfectants. Furthermore, these transfectants were not sensitized to Taxol treatment by mdr-1 blocker thioradazine. These data demonstrated that overexpression of c-erbB-2/neu can lead to intrinsic Taxol resistance independent from mdr-1 mechanisms.
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PMID:Overexpression of c-erbB-2/neu in breast cancer cells confers increased resistance to Taxol via mdr-1-independent mechanisms. 880 11

Autologous and allogeneic bone marrow grafting both require cytoreductive therapy but only the allogeneic procedure requires immunosuppressive agents. Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation has been reported to be associated with a high incidence of both renal failure and veno-occlusive disease (VOD) of the liver, the combination of which is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. There is less known about the frequency and severity of these complications in patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation. In the present study renal, hepatic and other complications were examined in 232 patients with Stages II/III and IV breast cancer who were treated with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic cell support with either marrow or peripheral blood progenitor cells. The post-treatment severity of the renal dysfunction was classified as follows: Grade 0, normal renal function [< 25% decrement in glomerular filtration rate (GFR)]; Grade 1. mild renal dysfunction (> 25% decrement in GFR but < a twofold increase in serum creatinine); Grade 2, > twofold rise in serum creatinine but no need for dialysis; Grade 3 > than twofold rise in serum creatinine and need for dialysis. There were 102 patients (44%) who were classified as Grade 0 and 81 patients (35%) who were classified as Grade 1 renal dysfunction. Severe renal dysfunction (Grades 2 and 3) was observed in 49 of the 232 patients (21%). This severe renal dysfunction of 21% compares with a previously reported 53% incidence of severe renal dysfunction for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Similarly, the frequency of hepatic VOD was less (4.7% or 11 of 232 patients) in this autologous bone marrow transplant study as compared to a reported incidence of hepatic VOD ranging from 22 to 53% in large series of allogeneic bone marrow transplant patients. The severe renal dysfunction (Grades 2 and 3) in the present autologous hematopoietic cell support study correlated most significantly with sepsis, liver and pulmonary dysfunction. The major fall in GFR occurred during chemotherapy but before hematopoietic cell support, thus primarily incriminating the cytoreductive therapy rather than the hematopoietic cell support. The only significant effect of different chemotherapy protocols was, at four weeks, the Taxol-treated group had a significantly lower creatinine clearance as compared to the BCNU treated group.
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PMID:Renal function in high dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic cell support treatment for breast cancer. 887 80

The activity of paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) in advanced breast cancer patients who have failed doxorubicin treatment is well established, but the optimal sequence between these two important agents remains to be determined. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer therefore designed a prospective randomized clinical trial in which patients not exposed to anthracyclines in the adjuvant setting received either first-line paclitaxel, given as a 3-hour infusion at a dose of 200 mg/m2 followed at the time of disease progression by second-line doxorubicin, given as a bolus injection at a dose of 75 mg/m2 or the reverse sequence. The target accrual is 330 patients. Interim results on 207 evaluable patients of 289 randomized are presented.
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PMID:An ongoing European organization for research and treatment of cancer crossover trial comparing single-agent paclitaxel and doxorubicin as first- and second-line treatment of advanced breast cancer. 889 93

Based on preclinical data, we designed a phase I/II clinical trial to determine the efficacy and toxicity of doxorubicin followed by paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) in the treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer (either untreated or relapsed after adjuvant therapy). In the phase I study, 19 enrolled patients received bolus doxorubicin (50 mg/m2) and, after a 16-hour interval, escalating doses of paclitaxel (from 130 to 250 mg/m2 in 30-mg/ m2 increments) by 3-hour infusion every 3 weeks for a maximum of eight cycles. Paclitaxel doses were increased if the maximum tolerated dose (MTD; defined by dose-limiting toxicities) had not been reached. Analysis of the 128 cycles assessable for toxicity demonstrated neutropenia (< 500/microL) in 20% of cycles with no significant clinical events. No relevant clinical cardiotoxicity was observed. Other toxicities included mild peripheral neuropathy and mild myalgia/arthralgia (In 37.5% and 30.4% of cycles, respectively). The maximum tolerated paclitaxel dose was not reached at the 250 mg/m2 dose level. In the second phase, 13 patients were treated with fixed doses of both drugs (doxorubicin 50 mg/m2 and paclitaxel 220 mg/m2, the dose level immediately preceding the highest paclitaxel dose used in phase I). Grade 4 neutropenia occurred in 36 of the 87 cycles but was complicated by fever in only eight cycles (9%); three patients needed granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. Peripheral neuropathy (grades 1 and 2 in 41.3% and 5.7% of cycles, respectively) and a myalgic syndrome (grades 1 and 2 in 24.1% and 17.2% of cycles, respectively) were observed. No significant clinical cardiotoxicity was observed in 12 of the 13 patients. One patient experienced a decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction (from 60% to 43%) at a cumulative doxorubicin dose of 400 mg/m2. Antitumor efficacy was evaluated in both phase I and phase II. Overall clinical responses included 10 complete (31.3%) and 15 partial (46.9%) responses, for an objective response rate of 78.1%. Six patients (18.8%) had stable disease. The median durations of objective and complete response were 9 and 7 months, respectively. The 78.9% objective response rate in the phase I trial (31.6% complete and 47.3% partial responses) suggests a dose response relationship: at paclitaxel dose > or = 190 mg/m2, all patients had an objective response (six complete and nine partial responses). These results confirm that doxorubicin followed by paclitaxel is active and should be tested as adjuvant treatment and in patients treated previously with anthracyclines.
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PMID:A phase I/II study of sequential doxorubicin and paclitaxel in the treatment of advanced breast cancer. 889 94

Paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) is active against advanced breast cancer and anthracycline-resistant breast cancer. We assessed the efficacy and toxicity of doxorubicin followed by a 3-hour infusion of paclitaxel in women with advanced breast cancer. Participants could have received at most one prior adjuvant chemotherapy regimen, but no previous exposure to anthracyclines or taxanes was permitted. The patients were treated every 3 weeks with doxorubicin (50 or 60 mg/m2) followed 30 minutes later by paclitaxel (155, 175, or 200 mg/m2). After reaching the maximum cumulative doxorubicin dose, treatment could be continued with paclitaxel alone. Thirty women were included, of whom 29 were evaluable for response. The overall response rate was 83% (95% confidence interval, 64% to 94%), with 24% of patients attaining complete remission. Median response duration for complete responders was 8+ months (range, 4 to 13 months) and median time to progression was 9 months (range, 2 to 18 months). Main toxicities were neutropenia, paresthesia, nausea/vomiting, alopecia, myalgia, and cardiotoxicity. In 15 patients (50%), the left ventricular ejection fraction decreased to below normal levels; six patients (20%) developed congestive heart failure. In conclusion, the combination of doxorubicin and paclitaxel is highly active; dose-limiting toxicities are neutropenia, neuropathy, and cumulative cardiotoxicity.
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PMID:Doxorubicin and paclitaxel, a highly active combination in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. 889 95


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