Purpose: We studied all salvage therapies given until death or the end of follow-up evaluation in women who failed to respond to the same first-line cytotoxic therapy for metastatic breast cancer.
Patients and methods: The study cohort consisted of 140 women who had received the fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide (FEC) regimen for metastatic breast cancer. Eight patients were excluded. No exclusions with respect to disease site, performance status, or biochemical abnormalities were made. The median follow-up time was 29 months for surviving patients.
Results: Most patients (88%) died during the follow-up period. Patients received a median of three salvage therapies (range, zero to eight) during the course of disease. Most courses (52%) were not assessable for response. Fifty-percent of courses consisted of chemotherapy: 35% of hormonal and 15% of combination of cytotoxic and hormonal therapies. The median duration of therapy (DT) ranged from 4 to 1 months, and decreased with advancing stages of therapy. Similarly, median time to treatment failure (TTF) ranged from 3 to 0.5 months. For unknown causes, patients who received second-line hormonal therapy fared better than those who received other forms of therapy. Of 366 analyzed courses, only one complete response (CR) and 18 partial responses (PRs) were observed (response rate, 11% for assessable and 5% for all courses). Stable disease for at least 3 months was found in 20% to 25% of courses. Most responses (n = 10) occurred during first salvage therapy, and no responses were observed after third salvage therapy.
Conclusions: Response rates for salvage therapies were low, and median treatment times short. The value of offering more than two salvage chemotherapy regimens to an unselected group of patients is questionable.