Outcomes of patients with HER2-negative breast cancer with central nervous system metastasis treated with capecitabine.

Abstract

e11553 Background: Systemic chemotherapy is often ineffective due to the impermeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and inherent chemoresistance of CNS metastases. There are limited data supporting the use of capecitabine in this setting. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and toxicity of capecitabine in breast cancer patients with CNS metastasis. Methods: The records of all patients with HER-2 Negative breast cancer with CNS metastasis that treated with capecitabine monotherapy were evaluated. All patients recieved capecitabine at a dose of 2,500mg/m2/day for 14 days at 3 weeks intervals. Results: Fifty-eight female patients with a median age of 42 years (min-max; 20-68) were included in this retrospective analysis. The median time to brain metastasis was 3.1 years (min-max; 0.5-15.5). Thirty (51%) patients were hormone positive, and twenty-nine (49%) were triple-negative. Forty-seven (78%) patients recieved capecitabine as first line treatment after the CNS metastasis. Only 4 patients had undergone surgery for CNS metastasis, and all patients had recieved whole brain radiotherapy before the capecitabine treatment. Five (8.5%) patents were treated with cyberknife radiosurgery. There were 6 (10%) complete (2 patient had metastasectomy for brain metastasis), and 21 (36%) partial responses with 9 (15%) patients having stable disease. Progressive disease was observed in 16 (28%) patients. 6 patients were not evaluabled for radiological evaluation. Median progression free survival time was 5 months, and median overall survival was 8.6 months. Dose reduction was required due to adverse effects in 20 patients (24%). The most frequent side effect was the hand-food syndrome (HFS), which developed in 29 patients (50%). Forty-percent of them developed grade 3 HFS disease. Diarrhea occurred in 21% of the patients, nausea in 19% of the patients. Grade 3-4 myelosupression were developed in 15% of the patients. There was no treatment-related death. Conclusions: Capecitabine is effective and well tolerated in the treatment of breast cancer patients with CNS metastases. It is feasible options HER2 negative breast cancer patients especially with neurological deficits.