Quality of Life in a Cohort of 1078 Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer in Spain: 7-Year Follow-Up Results in the MCC-Spain Study.

Breast cancer is the most frequent cause of tumors and net survival is increasing. Achieving a higher survival probability reinforces the importance of studying health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). The main aim of this work is to test the relationship between different sociodemographic, clinical and tumor-intrinsic characteristics, and treatment received with HR-QoL measured using SF-12 and the FACT/NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network/Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy) Breast Symptom Index (FBSI). Women with breast cancer recruited between 2008 and 2013 and followed-up until 2017-2018 in a prospective cohort answered two HR-QoL surveys: the SF-12 and FBSI. The scores obtained were related to woman and tumor characteristics using linear regression models. The telephone survey was answered by 1078 women out of 1685 with medical record follow-up (64%). Increases in all three HR-QoL scores were associated with higher educational level. The score differences between women with university qualifications and women with no schooling were 5.43 for PCS-12, 6.13 for MCS-12 and 4.29 for FBSI. Histological grade at diagnosis and recurrence in the follow-up displayed a significant association with mental and physical HR-QoL, respectively. First-line treatment received was not associated with HR-QoL scores. On the other hand, most tumor characteristics were not associated with HR-QoL. As breast cancer survival is improving, further studies are needed to ascertain if these differences still hold in the long run.

A multicentre phase II study to evaluate sequential docetaxel followed by capecitabine treatment in anthracycline-pretreated HER-2-negative patients with metastatic breast cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Treatment of HER-2-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients after anthracycline exposure is controversial. Docetaxel/capecitabine is a promising regimen, but the administration schedule is not well established. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Treatment included 3 cycles of docetaxel 100 mg/m2 day 1 every 21 days followed by 3 cycles of capecitabine 1250 mg/m2/12 h days 1-14. Patients not progressing were maintained with capecitabine 900 mg/m2/12 h on days 1-14 every 21 days until progression or unacceptable toxicity. RESULTS: Fifty-three anthracycline-pretreated patients were enrolled: median age 54 years, ECOG grade 0-1 86.7%. Most of the women received adjuvant chemotherapy (81%) and 5 patients (9%) had had prior metastatic chemotherapy treatment. Median time from anthracycline exposure was 29 months. ORR (intent-to-treatment analysis) after the sequential therapy was 51% (CI 95% 37-65) with 15% (CI 95% 7-28) of patients reaching complete responses. Median time to progression was 8.2 (CI 95% 7.1-10.7) months, with 61.9% (CI 95% 45.6-76.4) of the patients free of disease after 6 months. Median overall survival was not reached after a median follow-up of 10.4 months, and 75% of the patients were alive after 14.3 months. Survival rate after 12 months was 81.1% (CI 95% 68.0-90.6). The most frequent NCI grade 3-4 toxicities were hair loss (28.3%), asthenia (15.1%), stomatitis (11.32%) and nausea (11.32%). Severe hand-foot syndrome rate was 7.5%. CONCLUSIONS: Sequential docetaxel-capecitabine is feasible, effective and well tolerated in first-line MBC treatment. Evaluation of this schedule in randomised studies is warranted.