The main variable is time to disease progression. All patients must be treated with first line of induction chemotherapy, consisting of doxorubicin 75 mg/m2, day 1 every 3 weeks, and docetaxel, 100 mg/m2, day 1 every 3 weeks. Both drugs must be administered sequentially. Patients previously treated with anthracyclines must receive 2 courses of doxorubicin and 4 courses of docetaxel. Otherwise, patients will receive 3 courses of doxorubicin followed by 3 courses of docetaxel.
Patients with complete response, partial response or stable disease are eligible for 2001-01 study.
The investigators assume that maintenance treatment with Caelyx will increase mean time to progression from 10, 46 months (observation) to 17, 43 months. Expected difference in mean time to progression is 6, 97 months (Hazard ratio = 0.6). With an alpha error of 0.01 (unilateral) and power of 80%, 77 patients per arm are needed, 154 patients in total.
