Christoph C. Zielinski, MD

In patients with advanced breast cancer, treatment with paclitaxeland doxorubicin has been shown to produce impressive overall responserates (up to 94%) and to prolong overall survival significantly over acombination of fluorouracil (5-FU), doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide(Cytoxan, Neosar) in one prospective phase III clinical study.

From March 1996 to March 1998, 106 patients with untreated metastatic breast cancer (MBC) were treated with docetaxel (Taxotere) (100 mg/m²) and doxorubicin (75 mg/m²) on an alternating cycle-by-cycle (doxorubicin, docetaxel, doxorubicin, etc) or sequential (four cycles of docetaxel, then four cycles of doxorubicin) basis, every 3 weeks, for a maximum of eight cycles.