B17
UK and European pattern of care in advanced breast cancer patients after exposure to anthracycline and taxane
Mohamed Shehata1, Ahmad Al-Attar1, Robert Leonard2, Rajiv Agrawal3, Greg Wilson4, Farhad Neave5, Martin Hogg6, Amulya Chaturvedi7, Sunil Upadhyay7, Neville Davidson8, Stephen Chan1
1Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK, 2Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK, 3Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, Shrewsbury, UK, 4Christie Hospital NHS Trust, Manchester, UK, 5North Middlesex University Hospital Trust, London, UK, 6Royal Preston Hospital, Preston, UK, 7Queens Centre for Oncology & Haematology, Castle Hill Hospital, Hull, UK, 8Broomfield Hospital, Essex, UK
Background
There is considerable variation among clinicians on the choice of management in breast cancer patients who failed anthracycline and taxane. We aimed to study the patterns of care in advanced breast cancer (ABC) patients in the UK and Europe.
Method
This is a multicentre study of female patients diagnosed with ABC between 06/2002-06/2005 and previously exposed to anthracycline and taxane. In this initial analysis, we compared the results from 97-patients from the UK with the first 85-patients from other participating European centres in the Pan-European-Advanced-Breast-CancEr-(PEACE)-cohort-study.
Results
The 97-patients were recruited from 8-UK centres. Patients characteristics were comparable between UK and European data. The main differences were the availability of receptor status and the number of chemotherapeutic regimens. In UK, patients ER, PR and HER2 statuses were known in 73%, 34%, and 60% respectively, while in the Europeans these were 81%, 81%, and 69% respectively. PR, essential for the diagnosis of triple negative status, was not available in 66% of the UK patients compared to 19% in the Europeans. Chemotherapy was used less frequently in the UK (72%) compared with Europe (81%). Furthermore, the number of chemotherapy regimens used was lower: UK Patients were treated by 26-different regimens compared with 55 in the European cohort. Only 34% of the UK patients received ≥3-lines compared with 53% for the Europeans. The most common chemotherapeutic agents used were capecitabine and vinorelbine both in UK and Europe. The median duration between ABC diagnosis and death was 29-months (range 4-70) in the UK group.
Conclusion
These data show that in this cohort of patients, there is a difference in the pattern of care in UK compared to the rest of Europe. This is illustrated by the availability of receptor status and chemotherapeutic treatment options, especially clinical trial protocols. It would be interesting if these differences are translated to survival benefit in our final analysis.
Acknowledgements
This study was sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb
