
Novel agents are adding to the wide choices of standard chemotherapies already available. This review offers an approach to the selection of individualized and rational therapies for patients with metastatic breast cancer.


Novel agents are adding to the wide choices of standard chemotherapies already available. This review offers an approach to the selection of individualized and rational therapies for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

This article reviews recent findings from clinical trials of epothilones and discusses future directions for the use of these agents in cancer therapy, with a focus on the two most-studied epothilones to date: ixabepilone and patupilone.

The combination of capecitabine (Xeloda) and ixabepilone (Ixempra) appears to be robust in patients with the so-called triple-negative breast cancer phenotype