“Deborah agreed to take part in a trial as she was keen to help other cancer patients in the future. "If taking part in a trial means others might be helped then I’m very happy with that."
A trial looking at carboplatin or docetaxel chemotherapy for advanced genetic breast cancer (BRCA trial)
Cancer type:
Breast cancer
Status:
Results
Phase:
Phase 2
This trial was comparing carboplatin with docetaxel to find out which was the best treatment for advanced genetic breast cancer. The trial was supported by Cancer Research UK.
Having an inherited fault (mutation) in the BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene increases the risk of developing breast cancer. But not many women with breast cancer have inherited a faulty gene. As few as 1 out of every 20 cases of breast cancer (5%) are caused by a BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 fault ('genetic breast cancer').
The standard chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer is one of a group of drugs called 
to begin with. These include doxorubicin (Adriamycin) and epirubicin. If the cancer starts to grow again, patients may then have one of a group of drugs called taxanes. These include paclitaxel (Taxol) and docetaxel (Taxotere).
Doctors thought that another chemotherapy drug called carboplatin might be useful for genetic breast cancer. The aim of this trial was to find out if carboplatin was better than docetaxel for genetic breast cancer that had come back after chemotherapy.
Summary of results
This trial was never finished so there are no results available. The researchers were unable to recruit enough patients. In 2010, the trial merged with another trial called TNT.
Recruitment start:
Recruitment end:
How to join a clinical trial
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Please note - unless we state otherwise in the summary, you need to talk to your doctor about joining a trial.
Chief Investigator
Prof Andrew Tutt
Supported by
Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Cancer Research UK
Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC)
NIHR Clinical Research Network: Cancer
University College London (UCL)
Other information
This is Cancer Research UK trial number CRUK/04/011.
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last review date
CRUK internal database number:
Oracle 418
Please note - unless we state otherwise in the summary, you need to talk to your doctor about joining a trial.
Deborah wanted to help other breast cancer patients in the future
