Adding ixabepilone to capecitabine treatment for triple negative breast cancer.

This study wanted to find out if ixabepilone (Ixempra) and capecitabine (Xeloda) work for treating triple-negative breast cancer in patients with hard to treat disease compared to using capecitabine alone. The study found that adding ixabepilone to treatment resulted in longer survival without the cancer progressing.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is breast cancer that does not have receptors for certain hormones called estrogen, progesterone, or HER2. It is often hard to treat. In patients with TNBC, the cancer can often become resistant to some medications. Ixabepilone is a new chemotherapy medication which may help in TNBC. It is not known if adding ixabepilone to treatment with capecitabine will help.

This study consisted of 443 patients. All these patients had TNBC. All of the patients had late-stage cancer, or cancer which had spread from the breast. These patients had already received treatment previously, and become resistant to it. The information in this study came from two clinical trials. Of the 443 patients, 213 received treatment with ixabepilone and capecitabine. The remaining 230 patients only received treatment with capecitabine.

Overall, the patients who received treatment with both medications survived for 4.2 months without their cancer growing, compared to 1.7 months in those only treated with capecitabine. 30% of patients who were treated with both medications responded to treatment, while 15% of patients who were treated with capecitabine only responded to treatment. The overall survival was the same between both groups.

The authors concluded that adding ixabepilone to treatment with capecitabine is effective in the treatment of TNBC.  

This study is small, and is only in early stages. More studies on ixabepilone will come out soon.

Speak to your oncologist about what kind of treatment is right for you.