Breast cancer in patients with sickle cell disease can be treated safely with weekly paclitaxel

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among females; nevertheless, so far no data is available in the literature on the safety of oncological treatments in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Here we report a case of a 39-year-woman with SCD who presented with metastatic breast cancer, and was treated accordingly with weekly paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 day one, 8, and 15 every 28 days as a standard regimen for metastatic breast cancer. She managed to complete the full course of chemotherapy (18 doses) of weekly treatment without any dose reductions or delays. The main side effects were: grade 1 nausea; and grade 2 mucositis. However, surprisingly there was no episode of febrile neutropenia, anemia, or thrombocytopenia. Moreover, she had no vaso-occlusive crisis while on chemotherapy. Therefore, weekly paclitaxel is both safe and well tolerated in SCD patients with breast cancer.