Andreas Du Bois, MD, PhD

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Articles

Is Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Ovarian Cancer an Excuse for Insufficient Surgery?

Christian Marth, MD, PhD;Alain Zeimet, MD, PhD;Andreas Du Bois, MD, PhD

September 13th 2011

Surgical debulking of epithelial ovarian carcinoma has been a mainstay of therapy for more than 50 years-since the approach was first advocated by Meigs in 1934.[1] In 1968, Munnell[2] introduced the idea of the "maximum surgical effort”-essentially the removal of as much cancer as possible.

Anthracycline and Trastuzumab in Breast Cancer Treatment

Michael Untch, MD, PhD;I. Himsl, MD;Steffen Kahlert, MD;H. J. Lueck, MD;H. Eidtmann, MD;Andreas Du Bois, MD, PhD;H. G. Meerpohl, MD;Christoph Thomssen, MD, PhD;Nadia Harbeck, MD, PhD;C. Jackisch, MD;R. Kreienberg, MD;G. Emons, MD;Diethelm Wallwiener, MD;W. Wiese, MD;G. Schaller, MD;W. Kuhn, MD;M. Muscholl, MD;M. Pauschinger, MD;B. Langer, MD

December 4th 2004

This study was designed to evaluate the cardiac safety of the combined treatment of HER2-positive metastaticbreast cancer patients with trastuzumab (Herceptin) plus epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (EC) incomparison with EC alone in HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer patients. Patients included those withmetastatic breast cancer without any prior anti-HER2 treatment, anthracycline therapy, or any other chemotherapyfor metastatic disease. This was a nonrandomized, prospective, dose-escalating, multicenter, openlabel,phase II study in Germany. A control group of 23 patients received EC 90/600 mg/m2 3-weekly for sixcycles (EC90 alone). A total of 26 HER2-positive patients were treated with trastuzumab, or H (2 mg/kg weeklyafter an initial loading dose of 4 mg/kg), and EC 60/600 mg/m2 3-weekly for six cycles (EC60+H); another 25HER2-positive patients received H and EC 90/600 mg/m2 3-weekly for six cycles. Asymptomatic reductions inleft ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of more than 10% points were detected in 12 patients (48%) treatedwith EC60 + H and in 14 patients (56%) treated with EC90 + H vs 6 patients (26%) in the EC90 alone cohort.LVEF decreases to < 50% occurred in one patient in the EC60+H cohort and in two patients in the EC90+Hcohort during the H monotherapy. No cardiac event occurred in the cohort with EC90 alone. The overallresponse rates for EC60+H and EC90+H were >60%, vs 26% for EC90 alone. The interim results of this studysuggest the cardiac safety of the combination of H with EC may be greater than that of H with AC (doxorubicin[Adriamycin]/cyclophosphamide); however, studies in larger numbers of patients are warranted. The combinationregimen revealed promising efficacy.

Paclitaxel and Epirubicin as First-Line Therapy for Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer

Hans-Joachim Lück, MD;Andreas Du Bois, MD, PhD;Christoph Thomssen, MD, PhD;Björn Lisboa, MD, PhD;Michael Untch, MD, PhD;Günther Köhler, MD, PhD;Detlev Hecker, PhD;Klaus Diergarten, MD

April 1st 1997

Paclitaxel (Taxol) has aroused considerable interest for its high single-agent activity in breast cancer and novel mechanism of action. Epirubicin (Farmorubicin), the 4'epimer of doxorubicin (Adriamycin), also has high activity in