“I was keen to go on a clinical trial. I wanted to try new cancer treatments and hopefully help future generations.”
A trial looking at doxorubicin with either docetaxel or cyclophosphamide for early, locally advanced or inflammatory breast cancer
Cancer type:
Breast cancer
Status:
Results
Phase:
Phase 3
This trial was comparing different combinations of chemotherapy before surgery for breast cancer.
Doctors often give chemotherapy after surgery for early stage breast cancer because it reduces the risk of the cancer coming back. If the tumour in the breast is large, you may have chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumour before surgery (
).
In this trial, the researchers were comparing a combination of doxorubicin and docetaxel with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide for people who need chemotherapy before surgery.
The aim of this trial was to see which combination worked best as neoadjuvant treatment for women who had a tumour that was 3cm or more in size, or who had locally advanced or inflammatory breast cancer.
Summary of results
The trial team found that both combinations worked about as well as each other.
The trial recruited 363 women. They had up to 6 cycles of treatment and then had surgery. Half the women had doxorubicin and docetaxel, the other half had doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide.
With the combination of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide, the cancer responded in 61 out of every 100 women treated (61%). In 17 out of every 100 women (17%) who had this combination, all signs of cancer had disappeared when their breast was examined.
With doxorubicin and docetaxel, the cancer responded in 70 out of every 100 women treated (70%). And with this combination, breast examination showed that all signs of cancer had disappeared in 20 out of every 100 women (20%).
After nearly 3 years of follow up, cancer had come back in 55 of the women who had doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide. It had come back in 45 of the women who had doxorubicin and docetaxel.
We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists () and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
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
Professor J Evans
Supported by
The Anglo-Celtic Cooperative Oncology Group
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last review date
CRUK internal database number:
Oracle - 36
Please note - unless we state otherwise in the summary, you need to talk to your doctor about joining a trial.
Harriet wanted to try new treatments
