To assess the response rate and the tolerance of irinotecan as first-line therapy, 40 patients with metastatic gastric cancer received irinotecan 350 mg m(-2) every 3 weeks administered as a 30 min ...infusion. Among the 35 patients evaluable for response, two complete and five partial responses were recorded (response rate: 20.0% (95% CI:8.4-36.9%)). In total, 16 patients achieved stable disease and 12 progressive disease. In all, 66 percent of the patients benefited from tumour growth control. The median time to progression was 3.0 months (95% CI: 2.3-4.4%). The median overall survival was 7.1 months (95% CI: 5.2-9.0%). The probability of being alive at 6 months and 9 months was 61.0 and 32.4%, respectively. The median number of cycles per patient was 3 (range 1-14), and the relative dose intensity was 0.98. The most common grade 3-4 toxicities by patients were diarrhoea 20%, asthenia 10%, nausea 7.5%, vomiting 5.0%, abdominal pain 5%, neutropenia 38.5%, leucopenia 28.2%, anaemia 12.8% and thrombocytopenia 5.1%. Febrile neutropenia occurred in 12.5% of patients. These findings indicate that irinotecan is active and well tolerated in patients with metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma and warrants further evaluation in this clinical setting.
Background: Most patients with advanced ovarian cancer will relapse following platinum-based combination chemotherapy and be considered for second-line treatment. Gemcitabine, a nucleoside analogue, ...is active against a range of solid tumors. This phase II study investigated the activity of single-agent gemcitabine in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. Patients and methods: Thirty-eight patients with FIGO stage III (34%) or IV (64%) ovarian cancer who were previously treated with platinum-containing regimens were enrolled. Patients received 1200 mg/m2 gemcitabine on days 1, 8 and 15 of a 28-day cycle. Results: Patients completed an average of 3.6 cycles. Two complete and three partial responses were seen in 36 evaluable patients, for an overall response rate of 13.9% (95% CI: 4.7%–29.5%). The median survival time was 6.7 months. Toxicities were generally mild. The most common were grade 3–4 neu-tropenia and grade 3 leukopenia reported in 23.7% and 10.5% of patients, respectively. One patient had grade 4 pulmonary toxicity. Conclusion: Single-agent gemcitabine is active and well tolerated in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer.
This phase II trial was performed to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of oral tegafur-uracil (UFT) with leucovorin (LV) combined with intravenous (i.v.) irinotecan every 3 weeks (TEGAFIRI) as ...first-line treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Patients received oral UFT 250 mg m(-2) day(-1) and LV 90 mg day(-1) in three divided daily doses for 14 days followed by a 1-week rest and i.v. irinotecan 250 mg m(-2) as a 90-min infusion every 3 weeks. Tumour responses, assessed every two cycles using RECIST criteria, were reviewed by an independent review committee. In 52 evaluable patients, the best overall response rate was 33% (95% confidence intervals (CI) 20-47%; 1 complete and 16 partial responses). The median time to progression was 5.4 months (95% CI 3.02-7.52 months) and median overall survival was 14.9 months (11.73-17.97 months). A total of 307 cycles were administered, with a median number of five cycles per patient (range: 1-10). The most common grade 3/4 toxicities were neutropenia (25% of patients), diarrhoea (22%), vomiting (11%) and anaemia (11%). The TEGAFIRI regimen is a feasible, well-tolerated and convenient treatment option for patients with non-resectable mCRC.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of recombinant human interferon gamma (rIFN-gamma) as second-line treatment in patients with persistent disease at second-look ...laparotomy.
One hundred eight patients with residual disease at second-look laparotomy were treated with rIFN-gamma (20 x 10(6) IU/m2) administered intraperitoneally (IP) twice a week for 3 to 4 months. In the absence of clinically assessable disease, response to rIFN-gamma was assessed with a third-look laparotomy.
Of 98 assessable patients, 31 (32%) achieved a surgically documented response, including 23 patients (23%) with a complete response (CR). The age and size of residual tumor were significant prognostic factors for the response to rIFN-gamma. A 41% CR rate was observed in 41 patients younger than 60 years and with residual tumor less than 2 cm. The probability of response was independent of previous response to first-line chemotherapy. The median duration of response was 20 months and the 3-year survival rate in responders was 62%. Response to rIFN-gamma was the most significant prognostic factor for survival of patients with residual disease. Adverse events included fever, flu-like syndrome, neutropenia, and liver enzyme disturbances. No significant peritoneal fibrosis was noted.
These results support the potential interest of IP rIFN-gamma as adjuvant treatment in ovarian cancer. Controlled prospective trials are required to determine its place in the therapeutic strategy of this malignancy.
Our purpose was to determine, in patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma treated with irinotecan single-agent after 5-FU failure, the most significant predictive parameters for tumour response, ...progression-free survival and toxicity. Between October 1992 and April 1995, 455 patients with 5-FU resistant metastatic colorectal carcinoma entered four consecutive phase II trials. The first two studies assessed tumour response, the other two were randomized studies which assessed the efficacy of racecadotril to prevent irinotecan-induced diarrhoea. Due to homogeneous main eligibility criterias, data from those studies could be pooled for statistical analysis. Potential clinical and biological predictive factors (PF) for toxicity, tumour growth control, e.g. response or stabilization and progression-free survival (PFS), were studied in multivariate analysis. 363 patients were evaluable for response, 432 were evaluable for PFS, 368 for neutropenia and 416 for delayed diarrhoea, respectively. Normal baseline haemoglobin level (Hb), time since diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma, grade 3 or 4 neutropenia or diarrhoea at first cycle and a low number of organs involved were the most PF for tumour growth control (P<0.05). Significant prognostic variables for PFS were WHO Performance Status, liver and lymph-node involvement, time since diagnosis, age and CEA value (P < or =0.02). Six groups of patients based on the number of unfavourable prognostic factors are presented. Baseline bilirubin, haemoglobin level, number of organs involved and time from diagnosis were PF for neutropenia; PS, serum creatinine, leukocyte count, time from 5-FU progression and prior abdominopelvic irradiation were PF for delayed diarrhoea (P< or =0.05). These PF should help clinicians to anticipate for a given patient the probability to observe a response/stabilization or a toxicity. These results should also be prospectively confirmed in ongoing or future trials using irinotecan, both as a single agent and in combination with other drugs.
CPT-11 (irinotecan) is a promising anticancer agent with a novel mechanism of action dependent on the inhibition of the DNA eukaryotic enzyme, topoisomerase I. The clinical utility of CPT-11 in ...advanced colorectal cancer has been documented in more than 400 patients recruited in phase II clinical trials in Europe, Japan, and United States. Among 178 eligible patients in a multicenter European study, the overall response rate to CPT-11 on a once-every-3-weeks regimen was 18%, and the median duration of response was 9.1 months. Thirty-two percent of the patients had no evidence of disease progression at 6 months. These results were similar in chemotherapy-naive and pretreated patients. These findings are consistent with the results of other studies conducted in Japan and the United States in which a weekly CPT-11 regimen was associated with response rates of 15% to 32% in chemotherapy-naive or pretreated patients. The principal adverse events of CPT-11 are neutropenia and delayed diarrhea, which in the European studies developed as grade 3 or 4 toxicity in 21% and 12% of the cycles (47% and 38% of patients), respectively. Neutropenia did not appear to be cumulative, with total recovery by day 22 in most cases. Loperamide was considered the most effective agent for controlling delayed diarrhea. Other adverse events included an early cholinergic-like syndrome (consisting of diaphoresis, early diarrhea, and abdominal cramps), nausea and vomiting, fatigue, and alopecia. In conclusion, CPT-11 has shown promising antitumor activity in the treatment of patients with advanced colorectal cancer, including those refractory to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based regimens, suggesting no cross-resistance to 5-FU. CPT-11 appears to have activity similar to that of 5-FU in first-line treatment and, moreover, remains active after failure of 5-FU therapy. The specific gastrointestinal toxicity is manageable, and a better control of this type of toxicity is expected in the future. CPT-11 would therefore appear a welcome addition to the oncology armamentarium for this difficult-to-treat malignancy.
Abstract We conducted an individual-patient-data meta-analysis of the efficacy of chemotherapy on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in advanced/recurrent gastric cancer (AGC). ...Our primary research question was whether the experimental arms of the trials included in the meta-analysis showed a benefit as compared with their corresponding control arms. MEDLINE (up to 2010), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, National Institutes of Health (NIH) trial registry and proceedings of major oncologic and gastrointestinal cancer meetings were searched. Randomised controlled trials for AGC closed to patient accrual before the end of 2006 were eligible. As of December 2010, individual patient data were available from 22 trials (4245 patients, representing 47% of the targeted data) of 55 eligible trials. The overall comparison of experimental arms with the corresponding control arms showed statistically significant differences in terms of both OS and PFS. Hazard ratio was 0.88 (95% confidence interval 0.82–0.94, P < 0.0001) for OS and 0.81 (0.76–0.88, P < 0.0001) for PFS. The results of the sub-analysis of adding a given chemotherapeutic agent to any chemotherapy confirm the results of the overall analysis, with a hazard reduction of 11% for OS ( P < 0.01) and 26% for PFS ( P < 0.0001). This meta-analysis of individual patient data shows that the additions of experimental chemotherapeutic agents to pre-existing control or standard regimens have produced a modest improvement in OS and PFS. Median survival remained below 1 year for all investigated chemotherapy regimens and none emerged as a clear standard.
Topotecan is a topoisomerase (Topo) I inhibitor used in ovarian carcinoma chemotherapy. Topo I inhibitors are thought to be more cytotoxic using protracted schedules of administration. We tested this ...hypothesis on a preclinical model: human ovarian carcinoma OVCAR-3 implanted i.p. Nude mice were treated i.p. with a total dose of topotecan of 12.5 mg/kg delivered in 1, 5, 10, 20, 40, or 80 daily injections. The toxicity was maximal when the total dose was delivered within 5 and 10 days of treatment. However, the efficacy was the greatest (all of the mice cured) in the 20-day schedule using 0.625 mg/kg/day, hence, making this latter schedule the most efficient without any major toxicity. A pharmacokinetic study was conducted to identify parameters related to the efficacy and toxicity of topotecan in our model. The use of a population pharmacokinetic approach allowed us to define a therapeutic window: maintaining plasma concentrations above 0.2 microM for >10 h was necessary for an optimal antitumor effect and avoiding plasma concentrations >0.7 microM allowed a manageable toxicity. Finally, Topo I activity was monitored in ascites from animals treated with different topotecan administration schedules. The optimal schedule defined above allowed for sustained inhibition of Topo I activity associated with a greater antitumor activity. These in vivo data constitute a rationale for clinical studies testing this type of administration.
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