Abstract
Purpose : To analyse and compare the clinical effects and safety of capecitabine and tegafur/gimeracil/oteracil (S-1) in the treatment of advanced breast carcinoma. Methods : Eighty-four metastatic breast cancer elderly patients for whom first or second-line treatment had failed, were selected from among those admitted to the oncology ward of Binjiang People’s Hospital, China between January 2014 and June 2015. They were randomly divided into S-1 group (n =41) and capecitabine group (n = 41) and received varying doses of those drugs according to body surface area. Clinical effects, progression-free survival, and incidence of adverse reactions were compared for the two groups following treatment. Results : Disease control rate (CR) in S-1 group was 55.6 %, much higher than 35.1 % observed for capecitabine group (p 0.05). Furthermore, some adverse reactions such as myelosuppression and lack of strength, did not differ significantly between the two groups (p > 0.05), whereas others, including leukopenia, nausea and vomiting and hand-foot syndrome were more serious and frequent in capecitabine group than in S-1 group (p < 0.05). Conclusion : Monotherapy with S-1 is more effective than that with capecitabine. Adverse reactions are minimal for both drugs. Keywords : Breast carcinoma, Capecitabine, S-1, Adverse reactions, Myelosuppression, Leukopenia, Hand-foot syndrome
Highlights
Since the 1980s, breast cancer has had the highest incidence and the sixth-highest mortality rate of all malignant tumours in women
Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that the median progression-free survival (PFS) for the S-1 group and the capecitabine group was 5.5 and 4.5 months, respectively (95 % confidence intervals: 4.7 - 6.3 and 2.4 - 5.6 months); this difference was not statistically significant (X2 = 0.219, p > 0.05; Figure 1)
Clinical efficacy In S-1 group, the median number of chemotherapy cycles was 3.5 (1 - 11 cycles); after treatment, there were no cases of control rate (CR), cases of partial remission (PR), cases of stable disease (SD), and 14 cases of progressive disease (PD)
Summary
Since the 1980s, breast cancer has had the highest incidence and the sixth-highest mortality rate of all malignant tumours in women. In many cases, these cancers have already progressed to a late stage, some with distant metastases, by the time of initial diagnosis [1,2]. Surgery and chemotherapy are the major treatment methods for breast cancer. To extend survival as much as possible, chemotherapy without surgical treatment is more appropriate for late-stage chemotherapy. Many patients with advanced breast cancer have already experienced treatment failure using the drugs mentioned above. Effective, safe and easy-toadminister therapeutic regimens that can be maintained over the long term are lacking in clinics
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