Gemcitabine and platinum combinations in patients with breast cancer previously treated with anthracyclines and/or taxanes.

As anthracycline-based regimens have become a standard treatment and are frequently used in the adjuvant therapy of breast cancer, the number of anthracycline-resistant cancers has begun to increase. Taxanes have also become more commonly used in the first-line metastatic and adjuvant setting, producing a need for new treatment options that are not cross-resistant with anthracyclines or taxanes and that have a relative non-overlapping toxicity profile with these agents. The combination of gemcitabine/cisplatin has been shown to have synergistic cytotoxic activity in vitro in breast cancer cell lines. In addition, several phase II trials have suggested that this combination is feasible and active in patients who have received prior anthracycline and/or taxane therapy.