The British Journal of Cancer published an article about a trial that showed more than half of women with untreated advanced breast cancer responded to the combination of Taxotere (docetaxel) and Iressa (gefitinib).
The study showed that complete and partial cancer regression occurred in 54 percent of patients. The combination seemed to work best on tumors that were estrogen-receptor positive, showing a response rate of 70 percent. Estrogen-negative cancers had a much lower, 21 percent response rate.
Women with advanced or metastatic breast cancer usually will go through different regimes and different combinations of chemotherapies. Usually a specific drug will stop working at a certain point. The important thing is to keep having more combinations/drugs to try so that the options do not run out.
