A trial looking at carboplatin or docetaxel chemotherapy for advanced genetic breast cancer (BRCA trial)

This trial was comparing carboplatin with docetaxel to find out which was the best treatment for advanced genetic breast cancer.

Having an inherited fault (mutation) in the BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene increases the risk of developing breast cancer. But not many women with breast cancer have inherited a faulty gene. As few as 1 out of every 20 cases of breast cancer (5%) are caused by a BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 fault ('genetic breast cancer').

The standard chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer is one of a group of drugs called anthracyclines to begin with. These include doxorubicin (Adriamycin) and epirubicin. If the cancer starts to grow again, patients may then have one of a group of drugs called taxanes. These include paclitaxel (Taxol) and docetaxel (Taxotere).

Doctors thought that another chemotherapy drug called carboplatin might be useful for genetic breast cancer. The aim of this trial was to find out if carboplatin was better than docetaxel for genetic breast cancer that had come back after chemotherapy.