Eribulin Mesylate in Treated Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Study of Tumor Response and Adverse Effects

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer, majority of patients present in advanced stage and 30% develop distant metastasis. Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) is not curable and treatment aims at prolongation of life with good palliation. There is no standard treatment, though the usual first and second lines of chemotherapy include anthracyclines and taxanes. The third line chemo drugs available are gemcitabine, capecitabine, vinorelbine and eribulinmesylate Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study of MBC patients pretreated with anthracyclines and taxanes and then received 4 cycles of eribulin during the period March 2015-2017 in Medical College, Alappuzha and aims at studying the tumor response and drug toxicities. The tumor response is studied using CR-complete response, PR- partial response, PD-progressive disease and SD-stable disease. Results: There were a total of 18 patients, majority of whom were below 50 years. ECOG performance status of 0-1 was found in 83.3% and 77.8% were receptor positive. No patient had CR, 66.7% of patients had PR, 22.2% had PD and 11.1% had SD. 61.1% of patients who had a PR had good performance status.55.6% of patients who were ERPR positive had a PR and 44.4% patients who were Her2neu positive had a PR. Most common toxicities detected were alopecia (83.3%), neutropenia (72.2%), fatigue (72.2%) and neurotoxicity (55.6%). Conclusion: Eribulin mesylate is a drug having good response with tolerable toxicities and can be considered in our population. Keywords: Metastatic breast cancer, eribulin mesylate, capecitabine.