Preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy for 86 patients with advanced breast cancer

    XUE Fengª²Jie, DAI Zhiª²Jun, WANG Xiª²Jing, XUE Xingª²Huan, KANG Huaª²Feng, LIU Xiaoª²Xu, GUAN Haiª²Tao, ZHANG Shuª²Qun

    Department of Oncology, Second Hospital, Xi¬ðan Jiaotong University, Xi¬ðan 710004, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To evaluate the clinical significance of CEF regimen as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer. METHODS: Eightyª²six patients with stage ¢òbª² ¢ó breast cancer were treated with CEF regimen for 2 treatment cycles with each lasting for 28 d. According to the effect standard and toxic grading standard suggested by WHO, the efficacy and safety were evaluated. The patients received cyclophosphamide (CTX) 500 mg/m2 on day 1 and 8, epirubincin (EPI) 50 mg/m2 on day 1, and 8, and 5ª²fluorouracil (5ª²Fu) 500 mg/m2 on day 1 and 8. RESULTS: The cancer degraded in 35 (40.7%) patients and the overall response rate (RR) of the primary tumor was 47.7% (43/86). Four cases had complete response (CR), 37 cases partial response (PR) and no disease progressive (PD) case. For axillary lymph nodes, the overall response rate (RR) was 61.4 % (51/83). For clinically palpable axillary lymph nodes which had been found in 83 patients before treatment, 28.9 % (24/83) became inpalpable. The major toxicity included leukopenia, gastroenteric reactions and alopecia. CONCLUISON: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with CEF regimen for advanced breast cancer is effective and tolerable and therefore, is warranted for wide use. ......