Current Status of Epirubicin (Farmorubicin) in the Treatment of Solid Tumours

Multimodality treatment of 128 patients with locally advanced breast carcinoma in the era of mammography screening using standard polychemotherapy with 5‐fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide

“…It has been suggested that dose intensity is one of the important factors regarding outcome in breast carcinoma. 16,[23][24][25] In our study, lower dose intensity of epirubicin and 5-FU, respectively, reflected significantly worse prognosis. Recent studies have indicated a dose-response correlation in the treatment of breast carcinoma, in both adjuvant and metastatic settings, which also has been demonstrated in the neoadjuvant setting for LABC.…”

High-dose intensity cyclophosphamide, epidoxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone by shortened intervals and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a phase II study

“…In analogy with these trials of chemotherapy acceleration, we studied the shortenings of intervals between cycles of a combination of cyclophosphamide, epidoxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone. In this schedule we adopted epidoxorubicin instead of the parent compound doxorubicin, considering its more favourable toxic profile and assuming an anti-tumour equivalence of 1.2: 1.0, based on the fact that to achieve equimyelotoxicity epidoxorubicin should be administered at a dose 20% higher than that of doxorubicin (Mouridsen et al, 1990). Therefore, our dose of epidoxorubicin may be considered analogous to that of doxorubicin in the classical CHOP, whereas the other two drugs were at the same dose as in the conventional CHOP.…”

Cytotoxic Treatment of Metastatic Breast Cancer: Which drugs and drug combinations to use?

“…Except for the CALGB study (22), all the other studies comparing C M F with C A F demonstrated that alopecia, nausea and vomiting, and most importantly, cardiac impairment, were more frequent and severe in patients receiving doxorubicin. Numerous experimental and clinical investigations (26) have documented the toxic effect of doxorubicin on the myocardium leading t o irreversible congestive heart failure (CHF). It is well-established that the risk of C H F increases abruptly at a cumulative dose of doxorubicin exceeding 550 mg/m' making discontinuation of the drug therapy necessary at this dose level.…”

“…Epirubicin, which differs from the parent compound doxorubicin only by epimerization of the hydroxyl group of the 4' position of the daunosamine moiety, can be given in higher cumulative doses before the risk of C H F becomes a clinical problem. However, most clinicians d o not exceed a total cumulative dose of 1 000 mg/m' of epirubicin (26).…”