Metastatic breast cancer with resistance to both anthracycline and docetaxel successfully treated with weekly paclitaxel

We report the case of a 38-year-old woman who underwent surgery for stage III-b breast cancer, and whose liver metastasis failed to respond to both docetaxel (administered at 30-40 mg/m2 every 2 weeks as a 1-h intravenous infusion) and epirubicin (administered as a 40-60 mg/m2 bolus hepatic arterial infusion). For subsequent treatment, this patient was managed with weekly paclitaxel. The regimen showed some usefulness for the treatment of the liver metastasis, as indicated by an improvement in performance status and tolerable toxicity. This case demonstrates that weekly paclitaxel may be well tolerated and useful for patients with extensive metastatic breast cancer that was resistant to treatment. Our findings also suggest that paclitaxel could be used as a salvage therapy in patients with anthracycline- and docetaxel-resistant breast cancer.