Doxorubicin-docetaxel combination is associated with an increased risk of severe and life-threatening complications
October 20, 2017
The study was continuing a line of research that has shown combinations of certain breast cancer drug types are better that one kind alone in combating advanced and spreading breast cancer,and it involved the use of a combination of doxorubicin and docetaxel.
The research was conducted by the Huguenin Cancer Centre, Saint-Cloud, France and involved 627 women ages 18 to 70, and aimed to extend their survival for at least five years.
The study which began in 1999 was halted in January 2003, following two deaths related to drug poisoning and one case of peritonitis, an inflammation of the membrane of the abdomen.
The researchers say in conclusion, that the study shows that the doxorubicin-docetaxel combination is associated with an increased risk of severe and life-threatening complications, and the combination of the two drugs is potentially toxic.
The study appears in this week's Journal of the American medical Association.
"The rate of toxic death has decreased far below 0.10 percent in more recent trials," the authors write. "We observed a much higher rate of toxic death (0.63 percent) with the doxorubicin-docetaxel regimen. The higher rate of febrile neutropenia observed with doxorubicin-docetaxel than with doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide in our trial may have induced severe immunosuppression and contributed to the high rate of toxic death, which was 3 times as much as that observed in [another trial], in which 3 of 7 deaths were attributable to sequential docetaxel immunosuppression among 1,584 patients (0.19 percent)."
"In conclusion, this study shows that the doxorubicin-docetaxel combination is associated with an increased risk of severe sepsis and life-threatening complications. Clinicians should be aware of the potential toxicity of the doxorubicin-docetaxel regimen and consider the preventive use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and/or antibiotics (neither of which was recommended at the time of our trial) in both the adjuvant and metastatic settings. At this time the doxorubicin-docetaxel regimen should not be recommended outside of carefully designed clinical trials," the authors conclude.
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