Use of low-dose combined therapy with gemcitabine and paclitaxel for advanced urothelial cancer patients with resistance to cisplatin-containing therapy: a retrospective analysis
Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, 08/08/2012
Clinical Article
Miyata Y et al. – Low–dose gemcitabine–paclitaxel (LD–GP) therapy is feasible and well tolerated as salvage therapy in patients with advanced urothelial cancer (UC) with resistance to cisplatin (CDDP)–containing therapy.
Methods- Thirty-five patients with advanced UC, previously treated with CDDP-containing regimens, were treated with LD-GP therapy (GEM, 700mg/m2 + PTX, 70mg/m2 on day 1 and 8, repeated every 28days).
- Pain was measured on a visual analog scale before and after treatment.
- Pain relief and survival were compared between this and other treatment regimens.
- None of the patients had complete response to LD-GP therapy.
- Partial response and stable disease were seen in 25.7 and 62.9 % of patients, respectively.
- Kaplan–Meier curves showed better survival in patients with LD-GP therapy than with others (p=0.034).
- Twenty-eight patients (80.0 %) had adequate pain relief, and only two patients needed to increase their analgesics.
- Other regimens demonstrated pain relief in 30.4 % of patients.
- Common toxicities included leukopenia, with five patients requiring granular colony-stimulating factor therapy (14.3 %).
- The most common non-hematologic toxicity was fatigue (n=7, 17.1 %).
