St-line therapy for metastatic male breast cancer patients who had received
St-line therapy for metastatic male breast cancer patients who had received at least one prior endocrine therapy. Results: Fifty patients treated between 1978 and 2013 were included in the present analysis. Regarding best response, we recorded 1 (2 ) complete response and 27 (54 ) partial responses, for an overall response rate of 56 (95 CI, 42.2-69.8). Considering stable disease, the disease control rate was 84 . Median progression-free survival was 7.2 months (95 CI, 5.9-8.5), and median overall survival was 14.2 months (95 CI, 12.2-16.2). Albeit we observed some differences for all the outcomes explored when comparing anthracycline-containing and anthracycline-free regimens, they were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Chemotherapy, consisting in both anthracycline-containing and anthracycline-free regimens, showed encouraging antitumor activity in metastatic male breast cancer patients previously treated with endocrine therapy. Keywords: Male breast cancer, Metastatic disease, Chemotherapy, Anthracycline-containing regimens, Anthracyclinefree regimensBackground Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare disease accounting for less than 1 of PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28192408 all breast cancer (BC) cases [1]. Patients who develop a metastatic disease are mainly treated with anti-hormone therapies [2]. Initial hints on the therapeutic potential of manipulating the hormonal background dates back to the 1940s when endocrine surgery (orchiectomy, adrenalectomy and hypophysectomy) was associated with tumor regressions [3]. The use of hormonal treatments has found more concrete ground with investigations aimed at providing molecular information to assist in clinical decision-making [4]. Collectively, estrogen and progesterone receptors were detected as often expressed in MBC, even more frequently* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Division of Medical Oncology B, “Regina Elena” National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144 Rome, Italy 2 Scientific Direction, “Regina Elena” National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144 Rome, Italy Full list of author information is available at the end of the articlethan in female BC (FBC) [4]. A therapeutic role for the androgen receptor was more recently PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28667899 envisioned based on immunohistochemical and gene expression profile studies [5,6]. Thus, the current treatment paradigm for metastatic MBC patients (mMBC) relies on the concept of delaying chemotherapy as long as possible with the use of sequential anti-hormonal treatments. A number of factors account for this approach. Firstly, the wealth of hormonal medical treatments available, including tamoxifen [7], aromatase inhibitors [8-11], fulvestrant [12,13] and anti-androgens [14-16]. Though retrospectively, all the afore-mentioned compounds showed clinical activity [7-16]. Secondly, the lesson we learned from FBC is that chemotherapy is overall less effective in endocrineresponsive tumours. Thirdly, MBC is a disease of elderly men [1], for whom the harm possibly deriving from chemotherapeutic agents along with the often co-existing comorbidities refrain from using chemotherapy. Finally,?2015 Di Lauro et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://JWH-133 chemical information creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativ.
