[Assessment of the clinical efficacy and safety of fulvestrant in heavily pretreated patients with hormone-receptor positive metastatic breast cancer-a single-institution experience]

Gan To Kagaku Ryoho. 2013 Dec;40(13):2535-8.
[Article in Japanese]

Abstract

Fulvestrant, a pure estrogen receptor antagonist with no known agonist effects, was approved in September 2011 for the treatment of hormone-receptor positive metastatic breast cancer(MBC)in postmenopausal women in Japan. Here, we present a retrospective review of data from 73 heavily pretreated patients who received a high-dose regimen of fulvestrant in our hospital. Patients received a median of 3 endocrine therapies(range: 1-7)prior to the fulvestrant regimen. Partial response was observed in 4 patients, and 10 patients experienced stable disease for more than 6 months(objective response rate: 5.5%; clinical benefit rate: 19.2%). The median time to progression was 2.8 months. Fulvestrant was well tolerated; however, Grade 3 neuropathy at the injection site was observed in 2 patients. Of 12 patients, 3 responded to endocrine therapy following fulvestrant treatment. Our clinical experience indicates that fulvestrant can be administered to patients pretreated with several lines of endocrine therapy, although its efficacy as first- or second-line endocrine therapy has been demonstrated in clinical trial settings.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / adverse effects
  • Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / therapeutic use*
  • Breast Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Estradiol / adverse effects
  • Estradiol / analogs & derivatives*
  • Estradiol / therapeutic use
  • Fulvestrant
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Metastasis
  • Receptors, Estrogen / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Recurrence

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal
  • Receptors, Estrogen
  • Fulvestrant
  • Estradiol