Docetaxel-based adjuvant therapy for breast cancer patients in Asia-Pacific region: Results from 5 years follow-up on Asia-Pacific Breast Initiative-I

Aim To acquire patient characteristics, safety, relapse and survival outcomes of early‐stage breast cancer patients receiving docetaxel (Taxotere(R))‐based regimen in adjuvant setting from the Asia‐Pacific region. Methods This was an open‐label, international, longitudinal, multicenter, observational, prospective cohort of consecutive early breast cancer (EBC) patients with a high risk of recurrence being treated with various docetaxel‐containing anthracycline and non‐anthracycline adjuvant regimens during 2006−2013. Results In this study, 1542 patients were enrolled. Anthracycline‐containing regimens were administered in 92% of patients, while 8% of patients received non‐anthracycline‐containing docetaxel‐based regimens. The mean dose intensity of docetaxel was 25.8, 22.4 and 25.4 mg/m2/week among patients receiving docetaxel‐based monotherapy, combination and sequential therapy, respectively. Adverse events were reported in 94.9% of patients (anthracycline vs non‐anthracycline regimen; 95.1% vs 93.5%). Serious adverse events were reported in 12.6% of patients (12.4% vs 14.6%). Grade 4 neutropenia was reported in 25.2% of patients (24.7% vs 30.9%) and febrile neutropenia in 1.9% of patients (2% vs 0.8%). Only 7% of patients had a relapse or a second primary malignancy. At 5‐year follow‐up, there were 127 (8.3%) deaths (8.4% vs 6.5%). Conclusion The Asia‐Pacific Breast Initiative‐I registry highlights the important patient and treatment characteristics of EBC patients treated with adjuvant docetaxel chemotherapy from the Asia‐Pacific region that will help physicians to understand the impact of different docetaxel treatments on the clinical outcomes in this population.