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Systemic treatment of disseminated HER2-negative breast cancer

Jarosław Dyczka

Affiliacja i adres do korespondencji
CURR. GYNECOL. ONCOL. 2011, 9 (4), p. 238-244
Streszczenie

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy in the females and the main cause of malignancy-associated mortality. Patients with disseminated breast cancer are a heterogenous group and require different management strategies. This depends on several factors, first of all – tumor phenotype (steroid receptors), patient’s performance, dynamics of the neoplastic process, severity of symptoms and patient’s preferences. Treatment of disseminated breast cancer should include chemotherapy, hormonal therapy as well as supportive and symptomatic treatment. In patients with steroid receptors, low disease dynamics, localized lesions within soft tissues and bones, hormonal treatment should be considered in the first place. This type of therapy is based on antiestrogens (tamoxifen) as 1st line treatment in premenopausal women and tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors in postmenopausal women; progestagens and fulvestrant are rarely administered. These classes of drugs are usually well tolerated and their toxicity is mild but variegated. Chemotherapy remains by far the most toxic modality and should be reserved for women with high dynamics of the disease, lack of steroid receptors, interstitial metastases or not responding to hormonal treatment. Cytostatics most effective against breast cancer include taxoids (docetaxel and paclitaxel), anthracycline-derived antibiotics (doxorubicin and epirubicin), vinorelbine and capecitabine. Usually, two-drug or three-drug protocols are administered, although sequenced monotherapy using particular drugs is also justified. Chemotherapy is associated with an elevated incidence of adverse events, thereof the commonest are nausea and vomiting, hair loss and bone marrow aplasia, resulting in neutropenia, anemia and thrombocytopenia. Every type of treatment of disseminated breast cancer requires close monitoring of both adverse effects and therapeutic response according to the RECIST criteria.

Słowa kluczowe
breast cancer, metastatic disease, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, quality of life