Objective: To investigate the efficacy and toxicity of capecitabine (Xeloda) -based combination chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer (MBC).
Methods: Of the 42 MBC patients， 23 cases who had failed previous anthracycline-based chemotherapy received a regimen of Xeloda plus navelbine (treatment schedule: navelbine 25 mg/m2 iv. on day 1 and day 8， Xeloda 2000 mg/m2 po. twice daily from day 1 to day 14 every 3 weeks); the other 19 cases who had no prior anthracycline-based chemotherapy received Xeloda plus pirarubicin (treatment schedule: pirarubicin 35 mg/m2 iv. on day 1 and day 8， Xeloda with the same dosage regimen and treatment course as above-mentioned). The efficacy was assessed after at least 6 cycles of chemotherapy in all patients.
Results: Of the patients who received Xeloda plus navelbine， complete response (CR) was achieved in 5 cases， partial response (PR) in 12 cases and stable disease (SD) in 4 patients， and progressive disease (PD) was observed in 2 patients; the response rate was 73.91% (17/23); the median time to progression (TTP) was 8.4 months， and median survival time (MST) was 18.1 months. Of the patients who received Xeloda plus pirarubicin， the cases of CR， PR， SD and PD were 5， 7， 2 and 5， respectively; the response rate was 63.16% (12/19); TTP and MST was 7.8 and 17.5 months， respectively. The effective rate between the two sets of schedules showed no significant difference (P＞0.05). The major toxicity and adverse events for all the patients were leukopenia (Grade III-IV in 52.4% patients) and hand-foot syndrome (Grade II-III in 19.0% patients).
Conclusions: Capecitabine-based combination chemotherapy has substantial efficacy for MBC with tolerable toxicity profiles.