Evaluation of Two Administration Way on Curative Effects of Epirubicin in Treatment of Breast Cancer

Objective To evaluate the curative effects of Epirubicin(EPI) administered by means of micro-pumping and intravenous dripping in patients with breast cancer of the Ⅲ and the Ⅳ phases. Methods A total of 67 cases that were pathologically diagnosed as the Ⅲ- and Ⅳ-phase breast cancer were recruited in this study.Patients were randomly divided into two groups and received the same dosage of Epirubicin(70 mg/m²),which was administered by micro-pumping(MP group,n=33) and intravenous dripping(ID group,n=34),respectively.Chemotherapy repeated on a regular three-week cycle and observations of the curative effect were conducted in line with the WHO standard. Results Data from a total of 214 courses of chemotherapy were collected from the two groups of patients.All cases are assessable of their curative effects.In the MP group,10 cases of Ⅲ phase were specified as 2 cases of CR,6 PR,2 SD,but none of PD.The average remedial ratio(RR) reached 80.0%(8/10) and their disease control ratio(DCR) was 100.0%(10/10).Of the 23 cases of the Ⅳ phase(in which 7 cases was found with liver metastasis,15 with pulmonary metastasis,and 5 with brain metastasis),there was 2 cases of CR,13 PR,6 SD,and 2 PD.The average RR was 65.2%(15/23) and the DCR was 91.3%(21/23).In the ID group,9 cases of Ⅲ phase were specified as 1 case of CR,4 PR,3 SD,and 1 PD.The average RR was 55.6%(5/9) and the DCR was 88.9%(8/9).Of the 25 cases of the Ⅳ phase(in which 6 cases were found with liver metastasis,16 with pulmonary metastasis,and 4 with brain metastasis),there were 9 cases of PR,12 SD,4 PD,but none of CR.The average RR was 36.0%(9/25) and the DCR was 84.0%(21/25).Compared with the ID group,the curative effect of Epirubicin in the MP group turned out to be more prominent(χ²=5.509，P=0.027). Conclusion Administration of EPI by micro-pumping had better curative effect than by using intravenous dripping.Further study with large sample size should be carried out to validate our current observation.