Anthracycline-containing regimens are recommended as adjuvant treatment for women with node positive breast cancer. At least five large randomized clinical trials demonstrated that the addition or sequential administration of a taxane (paclitaxel or docetaxel) to an anthracycline-based regimen resulted in superior clinical outcome for women with node positive or high risk node-negative early breast cancer. In two large randomized studies the dose dense administration with G-CSF support of anthracycline-based and paclitaxel combination was superior to the same regimen administered every three weeks without growth factors as adjuvant therapy in women with axillary node positive breast cancer. In one randomized trial, docetaxel was proved superior to paclitaxel in women with metastatic breast cancer.
Data from at least one trial suggest that four cycles of a non-anthracycline but taxane-containing adjuvant regimen (docetaxel plus cyclophosphamide) provide outcomes that are at least as good, if not better than four cycles of doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide combination.
