CREATE-X a role for capecitabine in early-stage breast cancer: an analysis of available data

Breast cancer patients with residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery may benefit from additional anti-cancer therapies. Capecitabine, an oral antimetabolite and prodrug of 5-Flurouracil, has been approved for treating metastatic breast cancer. One randomized clinical trial (CREATE-X) of capecitabine versus no additional therapy has been conducted in women with early stage breast cancer who received standard chemotherapy pre-operative therapy and had residual invasive breast cancer at the time of surgery. Results from CREATE-X, showed that capecitabine had a statistically significant survival advantage compared with no additional therapy. This perspective provides a review and analysis of the available data from CREATEx in the context of results from other adjuvant trials of capecitabine in early stage breast cancer that had disease–free survival as a primary endpoint. We conclude that although the previously published studies of capecitabine in the adjuvant setting did not meet their primary endpoint, the data from these studies are consistent with the hypothesis that capecitabine may offer additional survival benefit in patients with chemo-refractory breast cancer at the time of surgery after receiving standard chemotherapy. In these patients, offering a course of adjuvant capecitabine or enrolling the patient in a clinical trial are appropriate therapeutic options. The patient should be informed about both the increased survival observed in the CREATEx trial and the expected toxicities from capecitabine chemotherapy.