[Experiences with PAC and PEC polychemotherapy in the treatment of advanced and recurrent breast cancers]

At the department of gynecology of the universities of Lübeck and Bonn 18 in part pretreated patients with advanced or relapsing cancer of the breast were treated with a DDP-containing polychemotherapy. For 14 of the 18 women the PAC or PEC regime was beneficial: 9 had complete or partial remission and 1 patient had a no change situation; 4 women showed no evidence of disease. The time of survival after the chemotherapy treatment was two month in the minimum and more than 50 month in the maximum (20 month in the average). As side effects, in particular leucocyte-depression and nausea as well as vomiting of various degrees were observed; alopecia was seen in every case. The success of DDP-containing chemotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer is of note, but in the future it will be important to define subgroups that would most benefit from PAC- or PEC-treatment without substantial negative side effects.