Dr Hope Rugo on the Importance of a Potential Oral Paclitaxel Option in Metastatic Breast Cancer

Hope Rugo, MD professor in the Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology, and director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the benefits of having an oral paclitaxel option in metastatic breast cancer if approved by the FDA in February 2021.

Transcript

If the FDA approves oral paclitaxel in combination with encequidar in February, what will be the importance of this oral option for patients with metastatic breast cancer?

In terms of the benefit for patients not having to come in and not needing IV access is incredibly important in the metastatic setting. Patients hate having their ports, they have problems with their ports; this would offer an option for patients not to need that IV access, which is a challenging thing in breast cancer patients using the veins in the arm.

And then also, just not coming to have to come into the infusion center every week is a tremendous benefit for patients. They could come in every 3 weeks like we used to do when we were giving IV paclitaxel in the early days. That is a benefit for patients, not to mention a benefit during the COVID-19 pandemic.