Summary
Twenty-five women with advanced histologically documented stage IV recurrent or inoperable breast cancer were enrolled on a phase II study of echinomycin administered at a dose of 1.2 mg/m2 intravenously over 30 minutes weekly for 4 weeks followed by a two week rest period. Seventy-six percent of patients had visceral dominant disease at study entry and all patients had previously received chemotherapy. One of 21 eligible patients had a partial response lasting 147 days. The median survival for this group of patients was 5.9 months and the median time to treatment failure was 1.7 months. Nausea and vomiting was the primary toxic effect and was severe or life-threatening in 43% of patients. Transient elevation of liver enzymes occurred in 30% of patients. Bone marrow suppression was not significant. Echinomycin as employed in this study did not demonstrate significant antitumor activity in previously treated patients with advanced breast cancer.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Martin DG, Mizsak SA, Biles C, Stewart JC, Baczynskyj L, Meulman PA: Structure of quinomycin antibiotics. J Antibiot (Tokyo) 28:332–336, 1975
Foster BJ, Clagett-Carr K, Shoemaker DD, Suffness M, Plowman J, Trissel LA, Grieshaber CK, Leyland-Jones B: Echinomycin: the first bifunctional intercalating agent in clinical trials. Invest New Drugs 3:403–410, 1985
Wakelin LPG, Waring MJ: The binding of echinomycin to deoxyribonucleic acid. Biochem J 157:721–740, 1976
Waring MJ, Wakelin LPG: Echinomycin: a bifunctional intercalating antibiotic. Nature 252:653–657, 1974
Clinical Brochure, Echinomycin, Division of Cancer Treatment, National Cancer Institute, December, 1981
Lathan B, Von Hoff DD: Cytotoxic activity of echinomycin in a human tumor cloning system. Cancer Drug Deliv 1:191–198, 1984
Harvey JH, McFadden M, Andrews WG, Byrne PJ, Ahlgren JD, Wooley PV: Phase I study of echinomycin administered on an intermittent bolus schedule. Cancer Treat Rep 69:1365–1368, 1985
Pazdur R, Haas CD, Baker LH, Leichman CG, Decker D: Phase I study of echinomycin. Cancer Treat Rep 71:1217–1219, 1987
Kuhn J, Von Hoff D, Hersh M, Melink T, Clark GM, Weiss GR, Coltman CA: Phase I trial of echinomycin (NSC-526417), a bifunctional intercalating agent, administered by 24 hour continuous infusion. Eur J Can Clin Oncol 25:797–803, 1989
Kaplan EL, Meier P: Nonparametric estimation from incomplete observations. J Am Stat Assoc 53:457–481, 1958
Einhorn LH, Nagy C, Werner K, Finn AL: Ondansetron: a new antiemetic for patients receiving cis-platin chemotherapy. J Clin Oncol 8:731–735, 1990
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schilsky, R.L., Faraggi, D., Korzun, A. et al. Phase II study of echinomycin in patients with advanced breast cancer: A report of cancer and leukemia group B protocol 8641. Invest New Drugs 9, 269–272 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00176982
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00176982