Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Oncology (Clinical)

We studied 51 patients in the period randomized to two arms of chemotherapy metronomic chemotherapy with Capecitabine versus intermittent Capecitabine as maintenance therapy following first-line Capecitabine plus Docetaxel chemotherapy in treatment of HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. We had one patient died during initial phase as complication of uncontrolled diabetes. After ending the initial phase of treatment 48 patient randomized in the two arms of maintenance treatment. Regarding the descriptive data there was no statistically significant difference between the two arms except age and menopausal state, age (P value= 0.018) and menopausal state (P value= 0.015). Responding cases remained higher in continuous capecitabine (95.0% versus 78.9%) with no significant difference between both groups (p value = 0.061). Regarding toxicity, we assessed for toxicity every cycle and we did not find significant difference between groups after any cycle. However, there was significant difference between both arm regarding the grade III and IV toxicities, which was significantly higher in the intermittent capecitabine arm. Overall response rate was 60% in the intermittent capecitabine arm while it was 73.1% in the continuous capecitabine arm, respectively while Clinical benefit rate (CBR) was 64% in the intermittent capecitabine and it was 73.1% in the continuous capecitabine arm

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