|
You
are here: Home: BCU 4|2001: Section 4
Section 4
Randomized Trial of Docetaxel-Capecitabine
versus Docetaxel
BACKGROUND
There were several
reasons to combine docetaxel with capecitabine. First, they are
both very active agents in treating metastatic breast cancer. Second,
they have largely non-overlapping toxicities, and thirdly and very
importantly, the two agents exhibit a rare example of biochemical
synergism. Docetaxel quite profoundly upregulates the expression
of thymidine phosphorylase, the pivotal and last enzyme in the metabolism
of capecitabine to 5-FU at the tumor site. Thymidine phosphorylase
is overexpressed in a majority of human breast cancers as well as
a number of other cancers. And when you put docetaxel and capecitabine
together, there is clear synergistic tumor cell killing. So this
trial was attempting to see whether this could translate into anything
of real importance to women with metastatic breast cancer.
—Joyce
O’Shaughnessy, MD
Page
1 of 4
Next
|
|
