Clinical comparison on the safety and efficacy of fluorouracil/pirarubicin/cyclophosphamide (FPC) with fluorouracil/ epirubicin/cyclophosphamide (FEC) as postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the safety and efficacy of a combination of 5-Fu, pirarubicin and CTX (FPC) with FEC as a postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

METHODS

A total of 655 breast cancer patients were treated postoperatively in Jiangsu Cancer Hospital and Research Institute from 1995-2005, 292 were treated with FPC (5-Fu 500 mg/m2 i.v. gtt on day 1, pirarubicin 40 mg/m2 i.v. on day 1, CTX 500 mg/m2 i.v. on day 1 and a cycle repeated every 21-28 days for totally 4-6 cycles); 363 with FEC (5-Fu 500 mg/m2 i.v. gtt on day 1, epirubicin 50 mg/m2 i.v. on day 1 and day 2, CTX 500 mg/m2 i.v. on day 1 and a cycle repeated every 21-28 days for totally 4-6 cycles). Toxicity was evaluated after each cycle of chemotherapy.

RESULTS

Main side effects in both FPC and FEC groups were leukopenia and gastrointestinal toxicity, with a 5 year survival rate 88.7% in FPC and 85.7% in FEC group.

CONCLUSIONS

FPC regimen is safe with superior long-term survival rate when compared with FEC, thus could be recommended as a postoperative chemotherapy regimen for Chinese patients with breast cancer.