A phase II study of weekly or 3-weekly docetaxel in patients with metastatic breast cancer

736 Background: A phase II study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of weekly or 3-weekly docetaxel in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Methods: 60 patients with metastatic breast cancer received either docetaxel 35mg/m2 weekly for a median 10 (8–12) consecutive weeks (n=25), or docetaxel 100mg/m2 on day 1 every 3 weeks, 6 cycles (n=35). The median age of patients was 46 years(31–66) with 22(36,6%) premenopausal and 38 (63,4%) postmenopausal. 50 patients (83,3%) received docetaxel as first line treatment for metastatic breast cancer, and the other 10 patients (16,6%) received it as second line treatment. Results: The incidence of all grade 3–4 adverse events was higher in the 3-weekly group than in the weekly group (64 versus 30) and the number of patients with grade 3–4 adverse events was also grater in the 3-weekly group (23 versus 12). Intent to treat overall response rate was 42% and 36% in the 3 weekly and weekly group, respectively. Median time to progression was 5.8 and ...