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Phase II STUdy with 3rd- or 4th-line bendamustine (flat dose) therapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer
Simone Steinbild1, Annette Frost, Brigitte Häring
1Tumor Biology Center at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Background:
Bendamustine is a drug with a favorable side effect spectrum and it offers a chance to overcome tumor resistance in pretreated patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC).
Patients And Methods:
Bendamustine was given as flat dose with 200 mg at days 1 + 2 in MBC patients pretreated with 2-3 different chemotherapies. Therapy was repeated at day 28 or fully recovered neutrophils. After 2 treatment cycles, a tumor response evaluation was performed. Toxicity was graded according to the National Cancer Institute common toxicity criteria (NCI-CTC) catalogue.
Results:
22 patients were evaluated for toxicity. 4 patients dropped out before the first tumor response evaluation; thus, 18 patients were evaluable for anticancer efficacy evaluation. 3/18 patients reached a partial remission (PR), 4 stable disease and 11 showed progression after 2 treatment cycles. The time to progression (TTP) was 5 months in patients with PR and 4 months in patients with no change (NC). In patients with progressive disease (PD), TTP was < 2 months. The main toxicities were nausea, weight loss and fatigue.
Conclusions:
Bendamustine can be given with a fixed flat dose, which simplifies the drug preparation. 2/5th of all treated patients responded to this therapy whereas bendamustine showed no anticancer effect in 3/5th of all patients. Bendamustine is definitely a drug with anticancer potential.
