Press Release: Paclitaxel Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer Not Associated With Serious Radiation Pneumonitis

Extract

Breast cancer patients treated with paclitaxel-based chemotherapy and radiation therapy do not experience pneumonitis—an inflammation of lung tissue—more often than patients treated with radiation and a chemotherapy regimen that did not include paclitaxel, according to a new study that appears in the November 17 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The use of taxanes, such as paclitaxel, has led to improved outcomes for patients with metastatic breast cancer and for patients whose disease has spread to the lymph nodes. Radiation therapy is also an important adjuvant treatment to prevent local recurrence of breast cancer, but some of the radiation focused on the breast tissue and chest wall passes through the lungs. Although the resulting incidence of radiation pneumonitis is low with the use of modern irradiation techniques, some reports have suggested that this side effect occurs more often in patients who receive taxanes. However, only small, uncontrolled studies have investigated the effect of taxanes on the development of radiation pneumonitis.