Dose-Dense Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

Clinical Pearls

Clifford A. Hudis, MD, chief, Breast Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses dose-dense chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with breast cancer.

• Early mathematical models suggested scheduling might be a viable alternative strategy to escalating the dose of conventional cytotoxic chemotherapies.
• The big breakthrough in this area was the development of growth factors in the 1980s and 1990s.
• This strategy represents a useful backbone for targeted therapies.