Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is still an incurable disease. Effective single agent chemotherapy is increasingly used in the fontline setting to lower toxicity and maintain the patient’s quality of life. We evaluated the use of Capecitabine [C] therapy in our centre retrospectively. Methods: 48 female patients with MBC were evaluated for response to C therapy. The medium age was 52,7 years, range 33–76 years. A total of 340 courses were given with a mean of 7 cycle per patient (range 2–33). The dose of C in 82% of patients was 2500 mg/m2. The C treatment was used as 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th line treatment after relapse. Results: an objective response was noted in 25% (12 patients) and the overall clinical benefit rate (partial responses + stabile disease) was 68,75% (33 patients). Medium follow-up duration was 15 months. The major toxicities were hand-foot syndrome, diarrhea and emesis. There was no treatment-related death. Conclusions: C treatment demostrates a really good efficacy in heavily pretreated patients with MBC.
Keywords: breast cancer, metastasis, chemotherapy, Capecitabine