Benefit of taxanes as adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer

BACKGROUND The magnitude of the survival benefit of taxanes as adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer is still unclear. A pooled analysis of Phase III trials was performed to assess the advantages that adjuvant taxane chemotherapy has over standard chemotherapy. METHODS All Phase III trials w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancer 2006-06, Vol.106 (11), p.2337-2344
Main Authors: Bria, Emilio, Nistico, Cecilia, Cuppone, Federica, Carlini, Paolo, Ciccarese, Mariangela, Milella, Michele, Natoli, Guido, Terzoli, Edmondo, Cognetti, Francesco, Giannarelli, Diana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adjuvant
breast cancer
chemotherapy paclitaxel
docetaxel
metaanalysis
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Summary:BACKGROUND The magnitude of the survival benefit of taxanes as adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer is still unclear. A pooled analysis of Phase III trials was performed to assess the advantages that adjuvant taxane chemotherapy has over standard chemotherapy. METHODS All Phase III trials were considered eligible. A pooled analysis was accomplished and event‐based relative risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were derived. The significant differences in disease‐free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were explored. Magnitude outcome measures were absolute benefits and the number of patients needed to treat. A heterogeneity test was applied as well. A sensitivity analysis in 6 subpopulations was also performed. RESULTS Nine trials designed to assess if paclitaxel or docetaxel improve survival (15,598 patients) were gathered. One of the 9 trials did not report OS results. Significant differences in favor of taxanes were seen in DFS in the overall (RR: 0.86; 95% CI, 0.81–0.90 [P
ISSN:0008-543X
1097-0142
DOI:10.1002/cncr.21886