[More effective positioning of capecitabine for advanced and metastatic breast cancer]

We investigated 30 patients with advanced and metastatic breast cancer who underwent capecitabine therapy in our department from July, 2004 to April, 2009. Patients' backgrounds: 35-82 years of age (median, 62 years of age). Performance status (PS): 0 approximately 1 in 21 cases, PS:2 in 7 cases and PS:3 in 2 cases. 63% of patients were positive ER and/or PgR, and 33. 3% were positive HER2. Of these patients, 17 had bone, 15 lymph node, 13 lung, 7 liver, and 4 skin metastasis. The capecitabine response in these patients was evaluated as follows: partial response (PR) in 9, stable disease (SD)in 6, long SD in 4, and progressive disease(PD)in 11, indicating a response rate(RR)of 30% and a clinical benefit rate (CBR) of 43. 3%. In comparison with after third-line treatment, capecitabine proved more effective as first or second-line treatment. Interestingly, the capecitabine response in HER2 negative-expressing patients, especially in HR(+)/HER2(-)subgroup, was significantly better than that in HER2-over-expressing patients. The soft tissue lesions(primary tumor and metastasis of skin and lymph nodes)showed a significantly better response to capecitabine treatment than other metastases such as lung, liver and bone. There was a significant difference in the response rate between soft tissue metastasis (lymph nodes, skin and primary tumor)and other types of metastasis (lung, liver, and bone). Finally, it was suggested that use of capecitabine in upfront line for HER2-negative expressing cases or soft tissue metastatic cases contributed to the prolongation of time to treatment failure(TTF)and overall survival.