RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of docetaxel in treating older women who have metastatic breast cancer.
OBJECTIVES: * Determine the feasibility of treating elderly women with metastatic breast cancer with docetaxel. * Determine the overall survival, 2-year survival, and response (confirmed and unconfirmed complete and partial) in patients treated with this drug. * Determine the toxicity and tolerability of this drug in these patients. * Determine the feasibility of using standardized self-report measures of comorbidity, depression, and functional status in elderly cancer patients. * Determine the parameters of clinical pharmacology of this drug in elderly patients and in patients under 60 years of age. * Determine, preliminarily, the genetic polymorphisms and gene expression levels of enzymes involved in drug metabolism and resistance in patients treated with this drug. OUTLINE: Patients are stratified according to age (70 and over vs under 60). Patients receive docetaxel IV over 1 hour on day 1. Treatment repeats every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed every 3 months for 3 years. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 80 patients (60 patients age 70 and over and 20 patients under age 60) will be accrued for this study.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
27
Study treatment feasibility
Time frame: monthly for duration of accrual
Overall survival
Time frame: at weeks 10 and 19, then every 3 months for 3 years
Survival at 2 years
Time frame: at weeks 10 and 19, then every 3 months for 2 years
Response rate (confirmed and unconfirmed complete and partial response)
Time frame: at weeks 10 and 19, then every 3 months for 3 years
Toxicity and tolerability
Time frame: at week 1, then every 3 weeks
Feasibility of standardized self-report measures of comorbidity, depression, and functional status
Time frame: upon completion of patient accrual
Comparison of clinical pharmacologic parameters between elderly patients and patients under 60 years of age
Time frame: upon completion of patient accrual
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