Title

Safety and Efficacy Comparison of Docetaxel and Ixabepilone in Non Metastatic Poor Prognosis Breast Cancer
Randomized, Open Label, Multicentric Phase III Evaluating the Benefit of a Sequential Regimen Associating FEC 100 and Ixabepilone in Adjuvant Treatment of Non Metastatic, Poor Prognosis Breast Cancer Defined as Triple-negative Tumor [HER2 Negative - ER Negative - PR Negative] or [HER2 Negative and PR Negative] Tumor; in Node Positive or Node Negative Patients.
  • Phase

    Phase 3
  • Study Type

    Interventional
  • Study Participants

    762
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) and giving them after surgery may kill any tumor cells remaining after surgery. It is not yet known whether docetaxel is more effective than ixabepilone when given after surgery and combination chemotherapy in treating breast cancer.

PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying giving combination chemotherapy followed by docetaxel or ixabepilone to compare how well they work in treating patients who have undergone surgery for nonmetastatic breast cancer.
OBJECTIVES:

Primary

To evaluate the benefit from sequential administration of 3 courses of combination chemotherapy (FEC100) followed by 3 courses of ixabepilone versus docetaxel on the 5-year disease-free survival of women with nonmetastatic, poor-prognosis breast cancer.

Secondary

To compare the 5-year distant metastasis-free survival.
To compare the 5-year event-free survival.
To compare the 5-year overall survival.
To compare the safety profiles for the two chemotherapy regimens.
To identify and/or validate predictive-gene expression profiles of clinical response/resistance to the two treatment regimens.
To bank frozen and fixed tumor and frozen serum prospectively for future translational studies in both genomics and proteomics (transcriptome and proteome analyses, tissue array analyses).
To compare the cost-effectiveness of these 2 regimens.
To compare the quality-of-life of patients treated with these 2 regimens.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to participating center, menopausal status (pre- vs post-menopausal), and tumor hormone-receptor status (triple-negative vs progesterone-receptor negative, HER negative, and estrogen-receptor [ER] positive). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

Docetaxel Arm: Patients receive epirubicin hydrochloride IV, fluorouracil IV, and cyclophosphamide IV every 3 weeks in courses 1-3 and docetaxel IV alone every 3 weeks in courses 4-6.
Ixabepilone Arm: Patients receive treatment in courses 1-3 as in arm I and ixabepilone IV alone every 3 weeks in courses 4-6.

In both arms, courses repeat every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients also complete a quality of life questionnaire periodically.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed periodically for up to 10 years.
Study Started
Sep 30
2007
Primary Completion
Jun 30
2017
Study Completion
Sep 03
2020
Results Posted
Mar 16
2021
Last Update
Mar 15
2023

Drug cyclophosphamide

500 mg/m² every 3 weeks

Drug Docetaxel

100 mg/m² every 3 weeks

Drug epirubicin hydrochloride

100 mg/m² every 3 weeks

Drug fluorouracil

500 mg/m² every 3 weeks

Drug ixabepilone

40 mg/m² every 3 weeks

Docetaxel Active Comparator

3 cycles of FEC100 (F and C, each at 500 mg/m², E 100 mg/m², every 3 weeks) followed by 3 cycles of D (100 mg/m² every 3 weeks)

Ixabepilone Experimental

3 cycles of FEC100 (F and C, each at 500 mg/m², E 100 mg/m², every 3 weeks) followed by 3 cycles of Ixabepilone (40 mg/m² every 3 weeks);

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

Inclusion criteria:

Histologically proven invasive unilateral breast cancer (regardless of the type)

Initial clinical condition compatible with complete initial resection
No residual macro or microscopic tumor after surgical excision

Node-positive disease (i.e., positive sentinel node or positive axillary clearance) (N+) or node-negative disease (-) meeting the following criteria :

Stage II or III disease
pT >20 mm (T1-4)

Patients must meet 1 of the following hormone-receptor criteria:

Node-positive patients: triple-negative* tumor (HER2 negative, estrogen-receptor [ER] negative, and progesterone receptor [PR] negative) OR double-negative (HER2 negative, PR negative, and ER+)
Node-negative patients: triple-negative* tumor only
NOTE: *Hormone-receptor negativity is defined as ER <10% and PR <10% by IHC and HER2 negativity is defined as IHC 0-1+ OR IHC 2+ and FISH or CISH negative
Must be able to begin chemotherapy no later than day 49 after the initial surgery

Exclusion criteria:

Clinically or radiologically detectable metastases (M0)
Bilateral breast cancer or contralateral ductal carcinoma in situ
Any metastatic impairment, including homolateral subclavicular node involvement, regardless of its type
Any tumor ≥T4a (cutaneous invasion, deep adherence, inflammatory breast cancer)
HER 2 overexpression defined as IHC 3+ OR IHC 2+ and FISH or CISH positive
Any clinically or radiologically suspect and non-explored damage to the contralateral breast

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Inclusion criteria:

Female
Pre- or postmenopausal
ECOG performance status 0-1
Peripheral neuropathy ≤grade 1
Neutrophil count ≥2,000/mm³
Platelet count ≥100,000/mm³
Hemoglobin >9 g/dL
AST and ALT ≤1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
Alkaline phosphatase ≤2.5 times ULN
Total bilirubin ≤1.0 times ULN
Serum creatinine ≤1.5 times ULN
LVEF ≥50% by MUGA scan or echocardiography
Not pregnant or nursing
Negative pregnancy test
Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for up to 8 weeks after completion of study treatment

Exclusion criteria:

Previous cancer (except cutaneous baso-cellular epithelioma or uterine peripheral epithelioma) in the preceding 5 years, including invasive contralateral breast cancer
Patients with any other concurrent severe and/or uncontrolled medical disease or infection that could compromise participation in the study

Clinically significant cardiovascular disease within the past 6 months including any of the following:

Unstable angina
Congestive heart failure
Uncontrolled hypertension (i.e., blood pressure >150/90 mm Hg)
Myocardial infarction
Cerebral vascular accidents
Known prior severe hypersensitivity reactions to agents containing Cremophor EL
Patients with any psychological, familial, sociological, or geographical condition potentially hampering compliance with the study protocol and follow-up schedule
Patients deprived of liberty or placed under the authority of a tutor

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

At least 2 weeks since prior minor surgery (excluding breast biopsy) and adequately recovered
At least 3 weeks since prior major surgery and adequately recovered
No prior chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or radiotherapy

More than 72 hours since prior and no concurrent treatment with any of the following strong inhibitors of CYP3A4:

Amiodarone
Clarithromycin
Amprenavir
Delavirdine
Voriconazole
Erythromycin
Fluconazole
Itraconazole
Ketoconazole
Indinavir
Nelfinavir
Ritonavir
Saquinavir
No concurrent participation in another therapeutic trial involving an experimental drug

Summary

Docetaxel

Ixabepilone

All Events

Event Type Organ System Event Term Docetaxel Ixabepilone

Percentage of Participants With Disease-free Survival (DFS)

DFS is defined as the interval between the date of randomization and the date of breast cancer relapse (local, regional or distant) or the date of invasive contralateral breast cancer or death from any cause, whichever occurs first

Docetaxel

78.97
Percentage of participants
95% Confidence Interval: 74.53 to 82.73

Ixabepilone

83.37
Percentage of participants
95% Confidence Interval: 79.06 to 86.87

Number of Disease-free Survival Events for Triple-negative Subgroup

DFS is defined as the interval between the date of randomization and the date of breast cancer relapse (local, regional or distant) or the date of invasive contralateral breast cancer or death from any cause, whichever occurs first in participants with triple negative breast cancer only.

Docetaxel

69.0
Events

Ixabepilone

50.0
Events

Number of Distant Metastasis-free Survival Events for the Whole Population

The distant metastases-free survival is the length of time during and after the treatment for cancer that a patient is still alive and the cancer has not spread to other parts of the body.

Docetaxel

82.3
Events
95% Confidence Interval: 78.1 to 85.8

Ixabepilone

87.7
Events
95% Confidence Interval: 83.8 to 90.7

Number of Disease-free Survival Events for ER+/PR-/HER2- Subgroup

DFS is defined as the interval between the date of randomization and the date of breast cancer relapse (local, regional or distant) or the date of invasive contralateral breast cancer or death from any cause, whichever occurs first in participants with ER+/PR-/HER2- breast cancer only.

Docetaxel

21.0
Events

Ixabepilone

17.0
Events

Number of Event-free Survival

The Event-free Survival is defined as the interval between the date of randomization and the date of breast cancer relapse (local, regional or distant) or the date of invasive contralateral breast cancer or the date of second neoplasia, or the date of death from any cause, whichever occurs first.

Docetaxel

77.46
Events
95% Confidence Interval: 72.94 to 81.32

Ixabepilone

81.53
Events
95% Confidence Interval: 77.05 to 85.22

Overall Survival

The overall survival is the length of time from randomization that patients enrolled in the study are still alive.

Docetaxel

87.0
percentage of participants
95% Confidence Interval: 83.13 to 90.03

Ixabepilone

87.6
percentage of participants
95% Confidence Interval: 83.64 to 90.66

Total

762
Participants

Age, Continuous

53
years (Median)
Full Range: 24.0 to 71.0

Race and Ethnicity Not Collected

0
Participants

Region of Enrollment

Sex: Female, Male

Overall Study

Docetaxel

Ixabepilone

Drop/Withdrawal Reasons

Docetaxel

Ixabepilone