Relative dose intensity delivered to patients with early breast cancer: Canadian experience

Abstract

Adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer improves disease free and overall survival in pre and postmenopausal women.  The importance of maintaining relative dose intensity (RDI) is well-known, however little information is available from routine clinical practice as to how well dose intensity is maintained with modern chemotherapy regimens.A retrospective review of patients undergoing chemotherapy for early breast cancer was performed at a single institution in Canada from January 2006 and November 2007.   A total of 263 patients received one of the following: AC-T, FEC-100, or FEC-D.  Overall, only 14.4% of patients received RDI < 85%.  Dose delay and / or reduction occurred in 46%, 37%, and 20% of patients receiving FEC-100, AC-T, and FEC-D, respectively.  Optimal RDI was delivered to 96%, 95% and 70.7% for AC-T, FEC-D and FEC-100 regimens, respectively.  Patients older than age 65 accounted for 14% of the total cohort and were more likely to receive suboptimal RDI than those younger than age 65 (35% versus 6.6% ).