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Neo-adjuvant therapy with dose-dense docetaxel plus short-term filgrastim rescue for locally advanced breast cancer

Neo-adjuvant, dose-dense docetaxel, 100 mg/m2 every 2 weeks ×4 cycles, was administered to 12 patients with locally advance breast cancer (LABC) (10 stage IIIa and three stage IIIb). Eligibility requirements included a PS 0–2, normal hepatic and renal function, and radiologic absence of metastatic disease. Filgrastim [granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF)] was started 1 day after chemotherapy and was given for 6 days. Complete blood counts were determined weekly. Surgery was planned upon recovery from the last dose of docetaxel and followed by 4 cycles of adjuvant doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide (AC) and radiotherapy. Patients with ER+ status received tamoxifen. The median age was 45 (range 34–73) and pre-treatment pathology revealed poorly differentiated infiltrating duct carcinoma in 11 and infiltrating lobular cancer in one, with positive ER/PR status in five. Twelve patients were treated, and all are evaluable for response and toxicity. Nine patients had a major clinical tumor response with five PR and four pathologic complete responses (pCR rate of 33%). Three patients (of whom two with stage IIIb) had progressive disease and went on to receive neo-adjuvant therapy with AC. There was one instance of grade 3 hematologic toxicity (neutropenic fever in one G-CSF non-compliant patient). There were two instances of grade 3 extra-hematologic toxicity: one patient had severe pain and one had treatment-related fatigue. After a median follow-up of 20 months (range 7–49 months) all patients are alive and eight of nine responders remain progression-free. Despite the small size of our study, we believe that dose-dense neo-adjuvant docetaxel is well tolerated and its activity warrants confirmation in a larger number of patients.