Dose Dense Chemotherapy Improves Survival in Breast Cancer Patients

A new clinical trial was presented at the end of last month at the 25th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. It compared ‘dose dense’ chemotherapy to conventional chemotherapy regimes in 1,973 women with node-positive primary breast cancer and no other metastases.

The women on the dose-dense regimen were administered filgrastim (a granulocyte-colony stimulation factor) to help prevent neutropenia (a condition where the number of a certain type of white blood cells declines).

The ‘dose dense’ regime reduced the risk of cancer recurrence and there was a low occurrence of side effects. The dose dense chemotherapy corresponded to a 31% overall reduction in the risk of death compared to conventional chemotherapy.

(Source: National Cancer Institute)