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Weekly paclitaxel in heavily pretreated ovarian cancer patients: does this treatment still provide further advantages?

  • Gynecologic Oncology
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the disease control rate (DCR) in heavily pretreated and relapsed ovarian cancer patients re-challenged with a weekly paclitaxel schedule and to establish whether a correlation between dose intensity, progression-free interval (PFI) and overall survival (OS) exists.

Methods

Retrospective data were collected from 30 heavily pretreated metastatic ovarian cancer patients who received 80 mg/m2/week paclitaxel regimen.

Results

The treatment was well tolerated and showed a DCR in 70% of the patients, with only one case of grade 3 hematological toxicity. One patient (3%) showed a complete response, 15 patients (50%) a partial response and five patients (17%) a stabilization of their disease. The regimen was mostly used as a fourth-line chemotherapy (range 2–7). The median dose intensity in responding patients was 57.5 mg/m2/week and in those with progressive disease 49.7 mg/m2/week. (p = 0.20). PFI and OS were increased in the responder patient groups with a log-rank test of 25.64 (p < 0.001) and 15.10 (p = 0.0001), respectively.

Conclusions

Weekly administration of paclitaxel was active and well tolerated as a salvage therapy for heavily pretreated ovarian cancer patients.

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Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, Division of Medical Oncology C, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy

    GianMaria Miolo, Davide Lombardi, Simona Scalone, Simon Spazzapan, Roberto Sorio, Gianna Tabaro & Andrea Veronesi

  2. Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Italy

    Ettore Bidoli

  3. Department of Oncology, Division of Medical Oncology, Pordenone Hospital, Pordenone, Italy

    Davide Adriano Santeufemia

  4. Gynecologic and Obstetric Clinic, University of Sassari, 07100 Viale San Pietro 12, Sassari, Italy

    Giampiero Capobianco & Francesco Dessole

Authors
  1. GianMaria Miolo
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  2. Ettore Bidoli
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  3. Davide Lombardi
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  4. Davide Adriano Santeufemia
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  5. Giampiero Capobianco
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  6. Francesco Dessole
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  7. Simona Scalone
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  8. Simon Spazzapan
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  9. Roberto Sorio
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  10. Gianna Tabaro
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  11. Andrea Veronesi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giampiero Capobianco.

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Miolo, G., Bidoli, E., Lombardi, D. et al. Weekly paclitaxel in heavily pretreated ovarian cancer patients: does this treatment still provide further advantages?. Arch Gynecol Obstet 285, 499–503 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-011-1976-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-011-1976-9

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