Chua DTT et al. - In a study to assess the safety/tolerability and initial efficacy of gefitinib in pts with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) pretreated with platinum-based chemotherapy, it was shown that gefitinib was well tolerated, but the response rate was poor in this heavily pretreated study population, and its use in NPC is not recommended outside the context of clinical trial Methods
Pts with recurrent and metastatic NPC who had treatment failure with at least 2 lines of chemotherapy including platinum were given gefitinib at a fixed dose of 250 mg daily
Treatment was continued until the pt experienced unacceptable side effects or disease progression
Results
19 pts were enrolled, having had treatment failure with a median of 2 chemotherapy regimens
Treatment was well tolerated, and only grades 1 to 2 adverse events were observed
None of the pts achieved partial or complete response
Median time-to-progression was 4 months, and median overall survival was 16 months
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