Phase II study of weekly low-dose 4'-epi-doxorubicin in advanced postmenopausal breast cancer.

A phase II study of 4'-epi-doxorubicin in 39 fully evaluable patients with advanced postmenopausal breast cancer has been performed. The patients received 20 mg of 4'-epi-doxorubicin iv weekly, irrespective of surface area. This dose schedule follows previous work with doxorubicin, showing good therapeutic effect with very low toxicity. The preliminary results of this study of 4'-epi-doxorubicin confirm that the drug is very active in breast cancer (51% objective response rate) and that the low-dose weekly approach is well-accepted with remarkably low toxicity (59% of patients had no complaints of toxic effects).