SALVAGE CHEMOTHERAPY WITH DACARBAZINE OR CARBOPLATIN VP-16 OF ADVANCED SOFT-TISSUE SARCOMA PRETREATED WITH DOXORUBICIN/IFOSFAMIDE/

Background: Doxorubicin and ifosfamide are the most active drugs in th e treatment of adult advanced soft tissue sarcoma. For patients not or no longer responding to these cytostatic agents no widely accepted sa lvage chemotherapy is known. Patients and Methods: Between 1986 and 19 95 100 adult patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma were treated w ith a combination of doxorubicin and ifosfamide. After transient respo nse or primary failure to this combination, salvage chemotherapy was a dministered to 22 patients, 14 patients were treated with dacarbazine (DTIC) 1,200 mg/m(2) as a 20-min infusion every 3 weeks, and 8 patient s received a combination of carboplatin 300 mg/m(2) as a 1-hour infusi on on days 1 and 2 and VP-16 300 mg/m(2) as a 1-hour infusion on days 1 and 2 every 3 weeks. Results: Treatment with DTIC led to stable dise ase in 2 patients and progressive disease in 12 patients. The combinat ion of carboplatin/VP-16 resulted in stable disease in 1 patient and p rogressive disease in 7 patients. Overall, no remission was seen in 22 patients. Conclusions: Although the number of patients treated by us was small, neither DTIC nor carboplatin/VP-16 seem to be effective sal vage chemotherapy regimens in adult patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma pretreated with doxorubicin/ifosfamide.