A PILOT-STUDY OF PACLITAXEL IN PREVIOUSLY TREATED PATIENTS WITH METASTATIC UNKNOWN PRIMARY CARCINOMAS

We enrolled 12 patients in a pilot phase II study to evaluate the effi cacy and toxicity of paclitaxel as a single agent in the salvage treat ment of patients with metastatic unknown primary carcinoma (UPC). Pati ents were given 175 mg/m(2) of paclitaxel as a three-hour infusion. On e patient was enrolled into the study with a diagnosis of poorly diffe rentiated carcinoma but was found after another biopsy to have a soft tissue sarcoma and was therefore not included in this study. All patie nts had progressive disease after receiving at least one prior chemoth erapy regimen containing cisplatin. Two patients had also received rad iation therapy. Seven patients had adenocarcinomas, two patients had p oorly differentiated adenocarcinomas and two had poorly differentiated carcinomas (PDC). Four patients experienced grade IV granulocytopenia and two patients experienced grade II nausea and vomiting. No respons es were observed, and the study was terminated without enrolling more patients. At the dose level used in this study, paclitaxel was inactiv e in the treatment of patients with UPC whose cancer was resistant to cisplatin.