Time to progression in metastatic breast cancer patients treated with epirubicin is not improved by the addition of either cisplatin or lonidamine: final results of a phase III study with a factorial design.

PURPOSE: To investigate the value of the addition of either cisplatin (CDDP) or lonidamine (LND) to epirubicin (EPI) in the first-line treatment of advanced breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Three hundred seventy-one metastatic breast cancer patients with no prior systemic chemotherapy for advanced disease were randomized to receive either EPI alone (60 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 2 every 21 days), EPI and CDDP (30 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 2 every 21 days), EPI and LND (450 mg orally daily, given continuously), or EPI, CDDP, and LND. Time to progression, response rates, side effects, and survival were compared according to the 2 x 2 factorial design of this study. RESULTS: The groups were well balanced with respect to prognostic factors. Time to progression did not differ in the comparison between CDDP arms and non-CDDP arms (median, 10.9 months v 9.4 months, respectively; P =.10) or between that of LND arms and non-LND arms (median, 10.8 months v 9.9 months, respectively; P =.47), nor did overall survival. The response rate did not significantly differ in the comparison between LND arms and non-LND arms (62.9% v 54.0%, P =.08). No difference in treatment activity was observed between CDDP arms and non-CDDP arms. Toxicity was significantly higher in the CDDP arms, leading to CDDP dose adjustment in 40% of cases. The most frequent side effects were of a hematologic and gastrointestinal nature. The addition of LND produced more myalgias and fatigue. CONCLUSION: Neither CDDP nor LND was able to significantly improve the time to progression obtained by EPI. CDDP, however, significantly worsened the drug's tolerability.

Prognostic significance of changes in CA 15-3 serum levels during chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer patients.

Tumor response to first-line chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer offers prognostic information and may be used as a surrogate marker for evaluating treatment efficacy. With this study we wanted to determine whether changes in circulating serum CA 15-3 levels during chemotherapy provided additional information for prognostic prediction. Serum CA 15-3 was measured at baseline and after 3 and 6 months during anthracycline-based first-line chemotherapy in 526 patients with advanced breast cancer prospectively enrolled in five phase II-III trials. Changes in marker levels were correlated with disease response, time to progression and overall survival. In all, 336 patients attained a disease response. A significant relationship was found between disease response and CA 15-3 variations, although many individual discrepancies were also observed. At the 6-month time point, the median time to progression was 15.3 months in patients with normal marker levels throughout the study, 11.7 months in those with a CA15-3 reduction >25%, 9.6 months in those with elevated baseline CA 15-3 levels which did not change during therapy and 8.6 months in those with increased marker levels (p < 0.001). The median survival was 42.3, 29.7, 28.5, and 24.8 months, respectively (p < 0.002). The prognostic role of changes in CA 15-3 levels was maintained in the patient subset attaining disease response or stabilization to treatment (p < 0.001) and after adjusting for clinical response and major prognostic parameters in the multivariate analysis (p < 0.001). In conclusion, monitoring serum CA 15-3 levels during first-line chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer patients provides prognostic information independently from tumor response.