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Chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer
Laura Biganzoli1, Alessandro Minisini, Matti Aapro
1Sandro Pitigliani Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Oncology, Prato Hospital, Prato, Italy. biganzoli.laura@virgilio.it
Purpose Of Review:
This review is intended to summarize the most up-to-date information in the field of chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer.
Recent Findings:
During the past year, the literature on chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer has focused on three main areas of interest: the development of new cytotoxic agents with most studies addressing the taxane-pretreated population; the evaluation of new combination regimens, mainly incorporating a taxane; and the development of new trastuzumab-cytotoxic-agent combinations in the HER-2-positive population. In addition, interesting data regarding combination versus sequential single-agent chemotherapy and the optimal duration of chemotherapy have been published.
Summary:
Interesting new drugs have faced phase II development. Randomized trials will define their role in the daily management of metastatic breast cancer. New combination regimens, generally incorporating a taxane, improve short-term efficacy in comparison with standard anthracycline-based combinations or single-agent chemotherapy, but at the cost of increased toxicity. Trastuzumab can be safely combined with several cytotoxic agents.
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