Whole brain radiotherapy concurrent with capecitabine chemotherapy for patients with brain metastases from post-operative breast cancer

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of whole brain radiotherapy concurrent with capecitabine for treatment of brain mestastases from breast cancer with post-operative.Methods Fifty patients with brain mestastases from breast cancer with post-operative were randomized into two groups:25 patiens were treatend with whole brain radiotherapy concurrent with capecitabine (treatment group) and the other 25 patients were treated with whole brain radiotherapy alone (control group).Radiation dose was 40 Gy in 20 fractions over 4 weeks.Capecitabine was administered concurrently with radiotherapy in escalatiny dose from the 1st day of RT to the end day (850 mg/m2,twice/day).Results The survival rates at 1-and 2-year were 60.0 ％ (15/25) and 28.0 ％ (7/25) in treatment group,44.0 ％ (11/25) and 16.0 ％ (4/25) in control group (x2 =1.28,1.05,P ＞ 0.05).Toxicities were tolerable.Conclusion Whole brain radiotherapy concurrent with capecitabine was effective and safe in treatment for patients with breat cancer and well-tolerated toxicity. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Neoplasm metastasis; Capecitabine; Radiotherapy