Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0278488 (metastatic breast cancer)
 7,812 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Preliminary data of an ongoing phase II-study in metastatic breast cancer patients are presented. Patients with metastatic breast cancer entered the study after hormone therapy had failed; prior treatment with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) was also allowed. The patients were treated with three cycles of 40 mg/m2 epirubicin i.v. on days 1-3 and 4 x 120 mg oral verapamil on days 0-3, given every 3-4 weeks. After three chemotherapy courses, ifosfamide was given as a short infusion of 3 g/m2 on days 1-3. Mesna (20% of the total ifosfamide dose) was given 0, 4 and 8 h after ifosfamide administration. Response was evaluated after three cycles of epirubicin/verapamil and after the last (third) cycle of ifosfamide. The side effects of this treatment were tolerable. The epirubicin/verapamil combination was no more toxic than epirubicin alone. Despite the high dose of verapamil, systolic blood pressure remained above 80 mm Hg, and patients never had a period of strict bed rest. Alopecia was almost complete after induction therapy with epirubicin/verapamil, and nausea and vomiting were absent or mild during epirubicin/verapamil chemotherapy and were easily controlled by antiemetics during ifosfamide treatment. Stomatitis and mucositis, the main toxic effects, could be ameliorated by intensive mouth-washing procedures. The haematological toxicity was greater after epirubicin/verapamil treatment than after ifosfamide therapy, but neither bleeding nor infections due to thrombocytopenia or leucopenia were observed.
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PMID:A phase II study of intensive-dose epirubicin/verapamil as induction therapy followed by intensive-dose ifosfamide for advanced breast cancer. 234 58

Ifosfamide is an oxazaphosphorine analogue of cyclophosphamide with proven activity in breast cancer but substantial urotoxicity. The introduction of mesna as a uroprotective agent provided a stimulus for reexamination of ifosfamide for therapy of women with metastatic breast cancer. Twenty women with measurable (18 patients) or evaluable (2 patients) disease were entered into a phase II clinical trial of ifosfamide plus mesna as first-line chemotherapy. Ifosfamide was administered i.v. at a dose of 1,800 mg/m2 in 1 L D5W over 2 h on five consecutive days. Mesna was administered i.v. at a dose of 400 mg/m2 over 15 min immediately before and 1 h after ifosfamide, and then every 4 h for three more doses. The last three doses could be given either i.v. or orally. The planned cycle length was 28 days. Three patients (15%), all with measurable disease, achieved a partial response (95% confidence interval: 3 to 38%). Median time to progression was 137 days and median survival was 407 days. Toxicities included cumulative myelosuppression and substantial nausea and emesis. Four patients were removed from treatment because of toxicity alone and a fifth refused further therapy. We conclude that ifosfamide, plus mesna, as given in this protocol has definite but limited antitumor activity and poor tolerability.
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PMID:Evaluation of ifosfamide plus mesna as first-line chemotherapy in women with metastatic breast cancer. 852 93