[The combined effect of paclitaxel and toremifene therapy for metastatic breast cancer]

A comparison of paclitaxel (PTX) alone with PTX+toremifene (TOR) in hormone receptor negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients was conducted to determine the therapeutic value of adding TOR to a PTX regimen. Eight MBC patients received 80 mg/m2 PTX weekly (PTX group) and six MBC patients received the same weekly dose of PTX plus 120 mg/day TOR daily (PTX+TOR group). Patients were repeatedly treated with a combination of PTX and TOR as long as a disease progression or unmanageable severe adverse events were defined. The PTX group was compared with the PTX+TOR group with respect to best overall response, response rate, clinical benefit rate, time to progression, adverse events and toxic profile of PTX and TOR. No significant difference in response rate was observed between the PTX group and the PTX+TOR group. However, a clinical benefit rate and time to progression improved significantly in the PTX+TOR group in comparison with the PTX group. TOR did not significantly enhance the adverse events of PTX. These results suggested that the combined treatment of PTX and TOR for MBC patients improved a patient response over PTX alone.