Breast cancer

Active Ingredient: Docetaxel

Indication for Docetaxel

Population group: only adults (18 years old or older)

Docetaxel in combination with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide is indicated for the adjuvant treatment of patients with:

  • operable node-positive breast cancer
  • operable node-negative breast cancer

For patients with operable node-negative breast cancer, adjuvant treatment should be restricted to patients eligible to receive chemotherapy according to internationally established criteria for primary therapy of early breast cancer.

Docetaxel in combination with doxorubicin is indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have not previously received cytotoxic therapy for this condition.

Docetaxel monotherapy is indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer after failure of cytotoxic therapy. Previous chemotherapy should have included an anthracycline or an alkylating agent.

Docetaxel in combination with trastuzumab is indicated for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer whose tumours over express HER2 and who previously have not received chemotherapy for metastatic disease.

Docetaxel in combination with capecitabine is indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer after failure of cytotoxic chemotherapy. Previous therapy should have included an anthracycline.

For this indication, competent medicine agencies globally authorize below treatments:

75-100 mg/m² once every 21 days

Route of admnistration

Intravenous

Defined daily dose

75 - 100 mg per m² of body surface area (BSA)

Dosage regimen

From 75 To 100 mg per m² of body surface area (BSA) once every 21 day(s)

Detailed description

In the adjuvant treatment of operable node-positive and node-negative breast cancer, the recommended dose of docetaxel is 75 mg/m² administered 1-hour after doxorubicin 50 mg/m² and cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m² every 3 weeks for 6 cycles (TAC regimen).

For the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, the recommended dose of docetaxel is 100 mg/m² in monotherapy. In first-line treatment, docetaxel 75 mg/m² is given in combination therapy with doxorubicin (50 mg/m²).

In combination with trastuzumab the recommended dose of docetaxel is 100 mg/m² every three weeks, with trastuzumab administered weekly. In the pivotal study the initial docetaxel infusion was started the day following the first dose of trastuzumab. The subsequent docetaxel doses were administered immediately after completion of the trastuzumab infusion, if the preceding dose of trastuzumab was well tolerated.

In combination with capecitabine, the recommended dose of docetaxel is 75 mg/m² every three weeks, combined with capecitabine at 1,250 mg/m² twice daily (within 30 minutes after a meal) for 2 weeks followed by a 1-week rest period.

Adjuvant therapy for breast cancer

Primary G-CSF prophylaxis should be considered in patients who receive docetaxel, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (TAC) adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. Patients who experience febrile neutropenia and/or neutropenic infection should have their docetaxel dose reduced to 60 mg/m² in all subsequent cycles. Patients who experience Grade 3 or 4 stomatitis should have their dose decreased to 60 mg/m².

In combination with capecitabine

  • For capecitabine dose modifications, see capecitabine summary of product characteristics.
  • For patients developing the first appearance of Grade 2 toxicity, which persists at the time of the next docetaxel/capecitabine treatment, delay treatment until resolved to Grade 0-1, and resume at 100% of the original dose.
  • For patients developing the second appearance of Grade 2 toxicity, or the first appearance of Grade 3 toxicity, at any time during the treatment cycle, delay treatment until resolved to Grade 0-1 and then resume treatment with docetaxel 55 mg/m².
  • For any subsequent appearances of toxicities, or any Grade 4 toxicities, discontinue the docetaxel dose.

Dosage considerations

Docetaxel is administered as a one-hour infusion every three weeks.

Active ingredient

Docetaxel

Docetaxel is an antineoplastic agent which acts by promoting the assembly of tubulin into stable microtubules and inhibits their disassembly which leads to a marked decrease of free tubulin.

Read more about Docetaxel

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