[Combined chemoendocrine therapy using adriamycin, cyclophosphamide and high dose toremifene in patients with recurrent breast cancer].

We studied a new chemoendocrine therapy against recurrent breast cancer in order to evaluate its efficacy and toxicity. Sixteen eligible patients were treated with the therapy consisting of adriamycin/cyclophosphamide (AC) plus toremifene (TOR). Adriamycin (20 mg/m2) was administered intravenously on days 1 and 8, and cyclophosphamide (100 mg/body) was given orally on days 1 to 14 every 4 weeks. TOR (120 mg/day) was given orally daily. The median age of the patients was 52 years; 6 were premenopausal and 10 postmenopausal. As post-operative adjuvant therapy, anthracycline chemotherapy and tamoxifen were given to 4 and 9 patients, respectively. AC therapy was administered for 8.5 cycles (median). Four complete responses (25%), 8 partial responses (37.5%), 4 no change (25%) (including 2 long NC), and 2 progressive disease (12.5%) were obtained, for an overall response rate of 62.5%. The median duration of time to progression and survival were 13.2 months (0.7-30.4 months) and 22.8 months (13.7-44.8 + months), respectively. The frequent toxicities were leukopenia, nausea/vomiting, and alopecia, but these were clinically well tolerated. Our results suggest that the addition of high dose TOR to AC therapy is useful in the treatment of recurrent breast cancer.