PACLITAXEL-ANTHRACYCLINE COMBINATION CHEMOTHERAPY IN RELAPSING ADVANCED OVARIAN-CANCER AFTER PLATINUM-BASED CHEMOTHERAPY - A PILOT-STUDY

Despite high response rates with platinum-based front-line chemotherap y, the prognosis for advanced ovarian carcinoma (AOC) is poor. Salvage chemotherapy for recurrent AOC was of little benefit before paclitaxe l as single-agent therapy showed appreciable efficacy. Anthracyclines are effective, but are not often part of first-line therapy. In this p ilot study, we investigated the feasibility of an anthracycline plus p aclitaxel combination therapy for recurrent AOC. Twenty-four patients received 150 mg/m(2) paclitaxel on day 1, with either 50 mg/m(2) doxor ubicin on day 1 or 75 mg/m(2) epirubicin on day 1 every 3 weeks. A 27% overall response rate was obtained. Myelosuppression was the major to xicity, but was manageable. No myocardiac toxicity was observed. We co nclude that paclitaxel-anthracyclines is a promising salvage combinati on therapy in AOC that should be investigated further. (C) 1998 Academ ic Press.