Abstract
The treatment of advanced breast cancer is continually evolving, with the aim of improving the quality and duration of remission and, in some instances, survival. In this setting, the importance of quality of life cannot be underestimated, and growing attention is being paid to treatment convenience and compliance. New anticancer agents have improved efficacy, but for many of them, toxicity often remains a problem. Vinorelbine seems to represent both an active and a well tolerated treatment for metastatic breast cancer. In particular, the oral formulation has similar efficacy to that of the injectable formulation and has demonstrated generally favourable tolerability, with a high degree of acceptance by both patients and physicians. The availability of this and other novel, well tolerated and effective treatments provides greater potential to tailor treatment to meet individual patient needs and, therefore, also provide the potential to improve patient outcomes. Preliminary data suggest that oral vinorelbine may permit continued, effective chemotherapy when further parenteral therapy with more intensive and more toxic agents is considered inappropriate. Early findings also suggest that oral vinorelbine, when administered together with another new oral agent, capecitabine, may be a valid choice in metastatic breast cancer treatment. Furthermore, vinorelbine plus the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab, with or without oral capecitabine, appears to be another regimen that may be worthy of additional study in patients with human epidermal growth factor-2 positive advanced breast cancer.
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Acknowledgements
Dr Aapro has acted as a consultant for and received honoraria and/or grants from Sanofi-Aventis, Roche and Pierre Fabre. Dr Conte has acted as a consultant for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Drs Gonzalez and Trillet-Lenoir have no conflicts of interest to declare. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by Pierre Fabre. Editorial assistance for the development of this manuscript was provided by Wolters Kluwer Health Medical Communications.
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Aapro, M.S., Conte, P., González, E.E. et al. Oral Vinorelbine. Drugs 67, 657–667 (2007). https://doi.org/10.2165/00003495-200767050-00002
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2165/00003495-200767050-00002