High-risk metastatic breast cancer patients treated with the antineoplastic drug mitoxantrone have equivalent results and a better quality of life than those treated with chemotherapy, according to German researchers.

Investigators conducted a study to determine whether patients with high-risk breast cancer that had spread would benefit more from treatment with mitoxantrone alone than with a combination of chemotherapy drugs.

A total of 260 women with high-risk metastatic breast cancer, previously untreated with chemotherapy, received either mitoxantrone or the combination of fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide every three weeks.

Treatment was continued until complete remission or until the disease progressed. In the case of partial remission or stability of the disease, treatment was stopped after 12 cycles. After this initial treatment, the women were given vindesine, mitomycin and prednisolone.

The final evaluation of the women showed that treatment with mitoxantrone alone did not differ significantly from combination treatment in terms of response, objective remission rate, remission duration, time to response, time to best response, time to progression or overall survival according to the study published in the Annals of Oncology.

However, there was a significant difference in gain from treatment using the mitoxantrone in quality of life issues and toxicity.

There was no evidence that any subgroup of patients would fare better with the combination treatment.

Other sources: Annals of Oncology