Background: Bendamustine is a drug with a favorable side effect spectrum and it offers a chance to overcome tumor resistance in pretreated patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC).
Patients and methods: Bendamustine was given as flat dose with 200 mg at days 1 + 2 in MBC patients pretreated with 2-3 different chemotherapies. Therapy was repeated at day 28 or fully recovered neutrophils. After 2 treatment cycles, a tumor response evaluation was performed. Toxicity was graded according to the National Cancer Institute common toxicity criteria (NCI-CTC) catalogue.
Results: 22 patients were evaluated for toxicity. 4 patients dropped out before the first tumor response evaluation; thus, 18 patients were evaluable for anticancer efficacy evaluation. 3/18 patients reached a partial remission (PR), 4 stable disease and 11 showed progression after 2 treatment cycles. The time to progression (TTP) was 5 months in patients with PR and 4 months in patients with no change (NC). In patients with progressive disease (PD), TTP was < 2 months. The main toxicities were nausea, weight loss and fatigue.
Conclusions: Bendamustine can be given with a fixed flat dose, which simplifies the drug preparation. 2/5th of all treated patients responded to this therapy whereas bendamustine showed no anticancer effect in 3/5th of all patients. Bendamustine is definitely a drug with anticancer potential.