High-Dose Chemotherapy with Autologous Haematopoietic Progenitor Cell Transplantation for Adenocarcinoma of the Breast

Abstract

Breast cancer is the second most common malignancy of women in the United States. One hundred and eighty-five thousand new cases are estimated to occur each year and approximately 44,300 women will die this year from breast cancer. No curable regimen including conventional-dose chemotherapy or hormonal therapy has been found for metastatic breast cancer. Although 10–35% of patients will achieve a complete remission with conventional-dose chemotherapy, the median duration of survival is approximately 1–2 years for patients with metastatic breast cancer [1]. These frustrating results prompted the exploration of high-dose chemotherapy for breast cancer and it is now more than a decade since the initial efforts to use high-dose chemotherapy with autologous bone marrow transplantation for patients with metastatic breast cancer. Over this time, the use of this treatment approach has massively expanded and breast cancer is now the most common disease in which high-dose chemotherapy and autologous haematopoietic progenitor cell support is performed.