Dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin monotherapy in patients with operable breast cancer and ≥ 10 positive axillary lymph nodes
Date
1998Author
Fountzilas, GeorgeNikolaides, C.
Aravantinos, Gerasimos
Skarlos, Dimosthenis V.
Kosmidis, Paraskevas A.
Papakostas, P.
Stathopoulos, G. P.
Kontostolis, E.
Bafaloukos, Dimitrios
Pavlidis, Nicholas
Source
OncologyVolume
55Issue
6Pages
508-512Google Scholar check
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Forty-one patients with operable breast cancer and ≥ 10 positive axillary lymph nodes were treated with 6 cycles of dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of epirubicin (100 mg/m2) every 2 weeks with G-CSF support. A total of 240 cycles were administered, all of them at full dose and 19 (8%) with a delay. Thirty-eight (93%) patients completed the treatment according to the protocol. The relative dose intensity of epirubicin was 0.99. Grade 3 toxicities included anemia (3%), nausea and vomiting (5%) and alopecia (71%). After a median fellow-up of 40 months, 16 (39%) patients were free of relapse. In conclusion, the present study has shown that the administration of dose-dense chemotherapy with epirubicin is feasible in the adjuvant setting with minimal toxicity.