Eribulin along with capecitabine in relapsed invasive breast cancer- a retrospective single-Institutional study

Background: Invasive breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer at present. Due to systemic nature of disease, chemotherapy plays an important role in treatment of invasive breast cancer. Relapse (loco-regional or metastatic) is not uncommon in this disease. Both eribulin and capecitabine are effective as single agent in relapsed disease. But in combination, efficacy of these two chemotherapeutic medicines are not properly known. In this single-Institutional retrospective study, Eribulin and capecitabine have been assessed as combination chemotherapy in patients with relapsed breast cancer. Materials and methods: Patients with relapsed breast cancer, having ER and/or PR positive, Her-2/neu negative or triple negative status and received eribulin alongwith capecitabine, were included in our study. Primary objective of this study was to assess response, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Secondary objective was toxicity assessment. Results: 48 patients were included in our study. Median age of patients was 56 years. Thirty six (75%) patients had ER and/or PR positive status and twelve (25%) patients had ER/PR negative status. Five (10.4%) patients achieved complete response (CR). Thirty two (66.7%) patients achieved partial response (PR). Disease was stable (SD) in nine (18.8%) patients. Two (4.2%) patients suffered from progressive disease (PD). Median Progression-free survival (PFS) was 10.15 months. Mean of PFS of patients was 10.72 (95% CI- 9.72-11.72) months. Median overall survival (OS) was 18.15 months. Mean of overall survival of patients was 19.56 (95% CI- 17.9-21.22) months. Nineteen (39.6%) and three (6.2%) patients experienced grade 2 and grade 3 anemia respectively. Eighteen (37.5%) and two (4.2%) patients suffered from grade 2 and grade 3 neutropenia respectively. One patients experienced grade 2 thrombocytopenia. Nineteen (39.6%) patients experienced grade 2 diarrhoea. One patients suffered from grade 3 diarrhoea. Palmo-plantor erythrodysesthesia had been experienced by eight (16.7%) patients. Six (12.5%) patients suffered from grade 2 neuropathy. Two (4.2%) patients experienced grade 3 neuropathy. Fatigue had been experienced by 19 (39.6%) patients. Conclusion: Eribulin alongwith capectabine can be used in patients with relapsed invasive breast cancer, in whom anthracycline and taxane have previously been used; with response rate and survival better than either single agent chemotherapy. This regimen is important particularly for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), where option for chemotherapy is limited.