Taxanes may partially protect against chemotherapy-induced menopause

Women with breast cancer who receive a taxane in addition to standard anthracycline-based chemotherapy seem to have a lower risk of chemotherapy-related amenorrhea than women who do not receive a taxane.

The finding comes from preliminary results of an ongoing study released this week at the 27th annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.Premature ovarian function is a common side effect of chemotherapy, Dr. Angela DeMichele from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia commented to Reuters Health. Risk factors include patient age and total cumulative dose of alkylating agent, but little is known about the additive effects of taxanes such as paclitaxel or docetaxel.Dr. DeMichele and her colleagues are looking at this issue in a longitudinal study of women with breast cancer.Early data on 72 women who were premenopausal at diagnosis suggest lower rates of chemotherapy-related amenorrhea in those treated with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide plus any taxane compared with those treated with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide alone (59% vs 71%).In other words, “Women who received a taxane were 40% less likely to develop amenorrhea,” Dr. DeMichele told Reuters Health.”Even though this is a pretty impressive odds ratio – 0.59 – it is not statistically significant,” she emphasized. “We need to accrue a greater number of patients to be able to say with a degree of certainty that this is what the estimates are going to be.”Nonetheless, “these data do suggest that taxanes seem to have a big impact” on chemotherapy-related amenorrhea, she said.”The fundamental question we need to sort out,” Dr. DeMichele noted, “is whether this has something to do with the taxane or something to do with the women who get the taxane.” This will involve pharmacogenomic studies, which are planned, she said.(Source: Reuters Health News: Megan Rauscher:Oncolink: December 2004.)