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© 2001 American Society for Clinical Oncology Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer with Vinorelbine and Docetaxel With or Without Human Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating FactorFrom the Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Oncology, Vienna University Medical School, Vienna; Department of Surgery, Wr Neustadt General Hospital, Neustadt; Department of Surgery, Baden General Hospital, Baden; Department of Surgery, Neunkirchen General Hospital, Neunkirchen; and Department Internal Medicine, Kirchdorf General Hospital, Kirchdorf/Krems, Austria. Address reprint requests to Univ Prof Dr Gabriela V. Kornek, Department of Internal Medicine I, Division of Oncology, Vienna University Medical School, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna; email: werner.scheithauer{at}akh-wien.ac.at
PURPOSE: A multicenter phase II trial was performed to investigate the efficacy and tolerance of docetaxel, vinorelbine with or without recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in patients with metastatic breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between February 1998 and March 1999, 57 patients participated in this trial. Forty-two patients received this combination as first-line and 15 patients as second-line chemotherapy, including 10 patients who had failed anthracyclines. Therapy consisted of vinorelbine 30 mg/m2 on days 1 and 15 and docetaxel 30 mg/m2 on days 1, 8, and 15 every 4 weeks. Depending on the absolute neutrophil counts on the day of scheduled chemotherapeutic drug administration, a 5-day course of G-CSF 5 µg/kg/d was given. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 64.3% (95% confidence interval, 48.1% to 78.4%) in patients receiving docetaxel plus vinorelbine as first-line chemotherapy, including eight complete (19%) and 19 partial remissions (45.3%); 11 patients (26.2%) had disease stabilization, and only four (9.5%) progressed. Second-line treatment with this regimen resulted in eight (53.3%) of 15 objective responses, four had stable disease, and three had progressive disease. The median time to progression was 12 months in the first-line and 9.8 months in the second-line setting, respectively. After a median follow-up time of 18 months, 38 patients (65%) were still alive with metastatic disease. Myelosuppression was commonly observed; World Health Organization grade 3 or 4 neutropenia both occurred in 18 patients (32%) and was complicated by septicemia in four cases; grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia was seen in two patients (4%), and grade 3 anemia was seen in only one patient (2%). Severe (grade 3) nonhematologic toxicity, except for alopecia, was rarely observed and included nausea/vomiting in two patients (4%), and stomatitis, peripheral neuropathy, and skin toxicity each in one patient. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that docetaxel and vinorelbine with or without G-CSF is an effective and fairly well tolerated regimen for the treatment of advanced breast cancer. It might be particularly useful in patients previously exposed to adjuvant or palliative anthracyclines and/or alkylating agents.
WORLDWIDE, BREAST cancer represents a major health problem, being responsible for 20% of cancer deaths in the Western world. Despite progress achieved in screening and management of early breast cancer, including adjuvant treatment, 25% to 30% of patients with negative axillary lymph nodes, and more than two thirds of those with axillary node involvement at the time of diagnosis will have recurrent and/or metastatic disease within a decade after surgery and will subsequently die.1,2 Conventional combination chemotherapy has not been able to change the natural history of advanced breast cancer, and current treatment approaches seem to have reached their maximum efficacy. Therefore, the identification of new agents and/or drug combinations with a superior therapeutic index remains a principal goal of investigational efforts. Among several different such promising new cytotoxic agents currently undergoing clinical evaluation in advanced breast cancer (ABC) are drugs that poison the mitotic spindle, such as taxanes and vinca-alkaloids.3-6 Both drugs result in an arrest of metaphase in dividing cells by different mechanisms. Docetaxel promotes tubulin assembly into microtubules, stabilizes microtubules, and inhibits depolymerization to free tubulin.7 Conversely, vinorelbine induces a disruption of microtubules by their reversible binding to tubulin, resulting in mitotic spindle dissolution.8 This combination would create a total microtubule poison and could offer theoretical advantages based on potential synergy when the drugs are given together. Preclinical data have shown that the combination was synergistic in vitro when both drugs were given simultaneously or vinorelbine preceded docetaxel; in contrast, antagonism was observed when docetaxel was administered before vinorelbine.9-11 Another interesting observation concerning this combination is that docetaxel could overcome resistance to vinorelbine resulting from mutations in tubulin, and vice versa.11 Favourable results were obtained when the two drugs were combined in a phase I trial of patients with ABC, and in several phase I/II studies investigating this combination in patients with advanced nonsmall-cell lung cancer.12-16 The aim of the present study was thus to evaluate the antitumor activity and tolerance of vinorelbine plus docetaxel in previously untreated patients with advanced breast cancer as well as in those who had failed one previous palliative chemotherapy regimen. To minimize acute toxicities and counteract myelosuppression that was likely to constitute the dose-limiting toxicity with this combination, we decided to use a weekly administration schedule of the taxane17,18; in addition, the hematopoetic growth factor granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) was given depending on absolute neutrophil counts on the day of scheduled chemotherapeutic drug administration.
Patients Selection Patients eligible for this study had histologically confirmed metastatic breast cancer with documented progressive, bidimensionally measurable disease. All patients were required to be 75 years old or younger, to have a World Health Organization (WHO) performance status of less than 3, to have an expected survival time of more than 12 weeks, and to have adequate bone marrow (absolute neutrophil count [ANC] 2,000/µL, and platelet count 100,000/µL), adequate renal (serum creatinine concentration < 132 µmol), and adequate hepatic function (serum bilirubin level and serum transaminase level < two times the upper limit of normal). Previous radiation therapy (with at least one target lesion outside the radiation port), previous hormonal therapy for advanced disease, and a maximum of one previous regimen of palliative chemotherapy were allowed. Previous therapy must have been completed at least 4 weeks before study entry with full resolution of toxicities. Adjuvant treatment was acceptable if the time interval between adjuvant therapy and the chemotherapy for metastatic disease was longer than 1 year. All patients gave informed consent according to institutional regulations. Patients with osteoblastic bone lesions as the only site of disease, patients with CNS metastases and those with previous or a second coexisting invasive malignancy were excluded.
Treatment Protocol
Toxicity and Dosage Modification Guidelines
Pretreatment and Follow-Up Evaluation
Assessment of Response
Statistical Methods
Patient Characteristics Between February 1998 and March 1999, a total of 57 patients took part in this trial, all of whom were assessable for response and toxicity assessment. The demographic data, sites of metastatic tumor, and previous therapies are listed in Table 1. The median age was 59 years (range, 36 to 75 years), and the median WHO performance status was 1 (range, 0 to 2). Except for 20 patients, all had multiple metastases involving two or more organ systems with predominant visceral, bone, and soft tissue sites in 37, 11, and nine patients, respectively. Adjuvant systemic treatment consisted of endocrine therapy in 23 patients, and/or cytotoxic chemotherapy in 27. The median interval from initial diagnosis to relapse was 20 months (range, 0 to 276 months) for the entire study population. Fifteen patients had previous cytotoxic chemotherapy for metastatic disease, and 19 patients had palliative hormonal therapy. Fourteen patients underwent palliative radiation therapy for skeletal manifestations or soft tissue lesions. Previous palliative chemotherapy consisted of cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/fluorouracil (CMF) in five patients, and anthracycline-containing regimens in 10 patients, respectively.
A total of 285 courses of study treatment were administered to the 57 patients. The median number of treatment cycle was six (range, two to six), and the median duration of follow-up at the time of this analysis was 18 months (range, 13 to 26 months).
Response to Treatment
The predominant sites of tumor involvement in patients who experienced CR was visceral in six patients, soft tissue in four patients, and bone in one patient; six of these patients had multiple metastatic sites. Seventeen (70.8%) of 24 patients who achieved PR had multiple metastases with predominant visceral (67%), bone (12%), and soft tissue (21%) involvement. The previous palliative chemotherapy in those patients who experienced CR or PR included anthracyclines in five, and CMF in three.
Toxicity
Nonhematologic side effects are listed in Table 4. Gastrointestinal symptoms were the most frequently encountered toxicities. Nausea and vomiting was in general mild, or moderate, however, confined to the day of drug administration, and responsive to standard antiemetic therapy. Stomatitis was noted in 16 patients (28%) including only one patient (2%) with WHO grade 3. Mild to moderate diarrhea was seen in 14 patients (25%). Twenty-four patients (42%) developed peripheral neurotoxicity, including one patient who experienced severe symptoms. Skin toxicities, including one severe reaction, were noted in 12 patients (21%), and a total of six patients (11%) experienced mild or moderate tearing. Alopecia occurred in 43 patients with complete hair loss in 18 (32%).
Treatment was discontinued prematurely in three cases because of progressive peripheral neuropathy, and the requirement of a more than 2 weeks treatment delay as the result of paravasation of vinorelbine, and explantation of an inflamed Port-a-Cath system in one patient each. Two additional patients wanted early discontinuation for personal reasons after four and five courses, respectively. Twenty-eight patients (50%) had at least one treatment delay of 1 week at some time during therapy, and the total number of delayed courses was 47 (16%). The reasons for delayed courses were hematologic toxicity in 28, nonhematologic side effects in 12, both in three cases, and personal reasons in four. Eleven patients had a 30% dose reduction of cytotoxic drugs during treatment, according to the study protocol, because of febrile neutropenia grade 4 (n = 6), thrombocytopenia grade 4 (n = 1), WHO grade 3 stomatitis (n = 1), skin toxicity (n = 1), or vomiting (n = 2). Dose-intensity was calculated for each patient and for each drug. The mean given dose-intensity of the combination was 95% of the projected dose with no significant difference between first-line (95%) and second-line patients (93.6%). The mean dose of vinorelbine was 12.9 mg/m2/wk (range, 9.6 to 15 mg/m2/wk), and the mean dose of docetaxel was 19.5 mg/m2/wk (range, 14.5 to 22.5 mg/m2/wk).
Survival
Most patients with metastatic breast cancer will receive systemic chemotherapy at some point during the course of their disease. Because doxorubicin- and epirubicin-based combinations are commonly used in the adjuvant setting, an increasing number of patients presenting with disseminated disease have a history of anthracycline exposure, thus limiting the use of this effective group of anticancer drugs for palliation. There is a need, therefore, for the development of nonanthracycline-based combinations for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Two candidate drugs for this purpose are vinorelbine and docetaxel. The rationale for their combined use were (1) the marked antitumor activity and safety of both drugs in ABC when given alone or in combination with other drugs,3-6 (2) preclinical evidence of a sequence-dependent synergistic interaction,9-11 and (3) encouraging results of recently conducted phase I/II studies evaluating this combination in nonsmall-cell lung cancer.12-16 Apart from few preliminary reports,12,23-25 to our knowledge, the present study is the first to report mature results on the efficacy of front-line chemotherapy in ABC with a combination of vinorelbine plus docetaxel. With an overall objective response rate of 64.3%, including 19% complete responses, our data suggest a marked antitumor activity of this drug regimen in patients with metastatic breast cancer. It seems noteworthy that the therapeutic effectiveness was not influenced by adverse prognostic factors such as predominant visceral disease or multiple metastatic sites, both of which were present in about two thirds of our patients. Clinical responses achieved were durable, and after a median follow-up duration of 18 months, 65% of the study population are still alive. A somewhat lower, though still remarkable response activity of 53% was noted in our 15 patients failing previous palliative CMF or anthracycline-based chemotherapy. As it concerns the tolerance of treatment, neutropenia was the most frequent and dose-limiting side effect associated with this regimen; WHO grade 3 or 4 toxicity occurred in 36 patients (64%) and was complicated by septicemia in four patients. According to the actual ANC-adapted use of G-CSF, however, only 31 (10.9%) of 285 courses had to be delayed for hematologic toxicity reasons. Nonhematologic adverse reactions were generally mild. The most common side effects included nausea/emesis and peripheral neuropathy, although grade 3 symptoms occurred in only two and one patients, respectively. In the latter case and in all other 23 patients with minor neurologic impairments, signs and symptoms reverted after treatment discontinuation. Other nonhematologic side effects were also generally mild and fully reversible, especially no fluid retention or edema occurred. As was noted by other investigators,26,27 the latter observation is likely to be related to the weekly administration schedule of docetaxel, although the lower cumulative dose of the taxane (according to a limited treatment duration in our study), as well as the rather intense concomitant corticosteroid schedule might have contributed to the absence of this adverse reaction.28 In conclusion, the results of this trial indicate that vinorelbine and docetaxel with or without G-CSF is an effective and tolerable first-line treatment for disseminated breast cancer. It seems to have an excellent and durable antitumor activity with an acceptable level of both hematologic and other organ toxicities. Compared with a recently published phase II investigation of vinorelbine and paclitaxel in 49 patients with untreated ABC,29 which appeared equally effective, the incidence of severe leukopenia (grade 3 or 4 in 93% v 53% in the present trial) and febrile neutropenia (18% v 7%), as well as of certain other adverse reactions, including peripheral neuropathy and total alopecia, seems to be lower. This difference might be explained by the ANC-adapted use of G-CSF, the choice of the taxane, and/or its administration schedule; a valid comparative analysis of two different phase II trials, however, is certainly not possible. In patients with metastatic breast cancer, an effective combination regimen with a high response activity may not necessarily translate into a survival benefit compared with monotherapy,30 however, because of a significant association between symptom improvement and objective tumor regression and the resultant better chance of palliation,31 its use in the front-line setting, in fact, might be preferable. This seems particularly true if the active regimen is associated with an acceptable toxicity profile. In view of the promising therapeutic index of the described regimen, a comparative trial with standard combinations such as fluorouracil/doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide or CMF, including formal measurements of quality of life, might be considered. Furthermore, in patients previously exposed to anthracyclines and/or alkylating agents, this combination seems to be of particular interest: according to the different mechanism of action and apparent noncross-resistance, further evaluation of its use as second-line therapy, and perhaps as a dose-intense sequential therapy with anthracyclines and alkylating agents in the front-line setting might be considered.
Supported in part by the Austrian Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der Biologie und Behandlung von Tumorkrankheiten.
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Copyright © 2001 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Online ISSN: 1527-7755. Print ISSN: 0732-183X
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