Current status of dose-dense chemotherapy for breast cancer.

In an effort to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy for breast cancer, examination of the impact of dose intensity, dose density, and treatment duration may have as much relevance as the specific antineoplastic agents utilized. After several years of pilot feasibility studies of dose-dense chemotherapy regimens, whose delivery has been made safe and feasible by the use of hematopoietic growth factor support (in particular, filgrastim), we now have phase III data demonstrating the advantages of this approach in the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer.