Background and purpose:With widely use of anthracyclines,patients are easily failed to respond to anthracyclines baseal regimens chemotherapy.Docetaxel and capecitabine(xeloda)are usually considered as the most active agents in breast cancer and are often used as adjuvant chemotherapy.In this study,we evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of docetaxel and xeloda combination regimen in the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer and previously treated with anthracyslines.Methods:64 patients who previously failed to respond to adriamycin based chemotherapy received docetaxel and xeloda combination regimen,docetaxel 75 mg/m2 ivgtt,day 1;xeloda 1 250 mg/m2,twice daily,day 1-14.The regimen was repeated every 21 days and the clinical response was recorded after 2 cycles.The effective patients received at least four cycles.Results:In 64 patients,the overall response rate was 60.9%,with 6 patieuts CR and 33 patients PR.The most frequent treatment-related adverse events were leukopenia, fatigue,nausea,vomiting and hand-foot syndrome.The main reactions were myelosuppression,Ⅲ-Ⅳwas 45.8%. Conclusion:Good clinical efficacy were achieved in the therapy of metastatic breast cancer with docetaxel and xeloda combination regimen and toxic reactions are tolerable.