Treatment of poorly differentiated neuroendocrine tumours with etoposide and cisplatin

The purpose of this study was to evaluate by a retrospective analysis of 53 patients the efficacy of chemotherapy combining etoposide and cisplatin in the treatment of neuroendocrine tumours. The regimen was a combination of etoposide 100 mg m(-2) day(-1) for 3 days and cisplatin 100 mg m(-2) on day 1, given by 2-h intravenous infusion, administered every 27 days. Twelve p atients had a well-differentiated and 41 a poorly differentiated neuroendoc rine tumour. Toxicity of treatment was assessed in 50 patients and efficacy in 52 patients. Among the 11 patients with a well-differentiated tumour ev aluable for tumoural response, only one (9.4%) had a partial response for 8 .5 months. Forty-one patients with a poorly differentiated tumour showed an objective response rate of 41.5% (four complete and 13 partial responses); the median duration of response was 9.2 months, the median overall surviva l 15 months and the median progression-free survival 8.9 months. Haematolog ical grade 3-4 toxicity was observed in 60% of the cases with one treatment -related death, digestive grade 3-4 toxicity in 40% and grade 3 alopecia wa s constant. No severe renal, hearing and neurological toxicities were obser ved (grade 1 in 6%, 14%, 72% respectively and no grade >1). We confirm that poorly differentiated neuroendocrine tumours are chemosensitive to the eto poside plus cisplatin combination. However, the prognosis remains poor with a 2-year survival lower than 20% confirming that new therapeutic strategie s have to be developed. (C) 1999 Cancer Research Campaign.