Weekly Taxol best for followup breast cancer care

By Gene Emery

BOSTON, April 16 (Reuters) - Women whose breast cancer may have spread survive a bit longer with weekly infusions of the drug Taxol than less-frequent treatments or treatment with a similar drug, researchers reported on Wednesday.

The chance of surviving and being free of breast cancer after five years was 27 percent higher among women who received 12 weekly treatments with Taxol, known generically as paclitaxel, compared to standard care with the drug being given every three weeks for 12 weeks.

"This represents a new option for women whose cancer has spread to the lymph nodes," Dr. Joseph Sparano of the Montefiore-Einstein Cancer Center in New York, said in a statement.

Usually Taxol, sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N) , is given at a high dose every three weeks following surgery and treatment with other chemotherapy drugs.

In the Sparano study, 5,000 women who received the generic chemotherapy drugs doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide got one of four followup treatments.

Of the 1,200 women who got Taxol every three weeks, the estimated five-year survival rate was 86.5 percent, compared to 89.7 percent for the 1,200 who once a week received a dose that was a little less than half the amount of the other group's.

For the women who got docetaxel, which is also known by Sanofi-Aventis (SNY.N) brand name Taxotere, survival rates were 87.3 percent for those who got treatments every three weeks and 86.2 percent when a smaller dose was given once a week.

The side-effects were also a bit less for women given smaller, weekly infusions.

The findings run counter to reports that Taxol might not help women with the most common form of breast cancer, estrogen-receptor-positive disease.

"The results of this study provide reassuring evidence that paclitaxel is effective for most women with breast cancer, although it appears that it must be given weekly in order for it to be effective," Sparano said. (Editing by Maggie Fox and Cynthia Osterman)