Abstract
The role of high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains controversial. This study was initiated to compare the efficacy and tolerability of HDCT as a consolidation approach in women with chemosensitive advanced EOC (FIGO stages IIC–IV). Patients who had achieved their first clinical complete remission after six cycles of conventional paclitaxel and carboplatin combination chemotherapy were randomly assigned to receive or not high-dose melphalan. The primary objective was to compare time to disease progression (TTP). A total of 80 patients were enrolled onto the trial. Patients who were randomized to receive HDCT were initially treated with cyclophosphamide 4 g/m2 for PBPC mobilization. HDCT consisted of melphalan 200 mg/m2. Of the 37 patients who were allocated to HDCT, 11 (29.7%) did not receive melphalan either due to patient refusal (n=5) or due to failure of PBPC mobilization (n=6). In an intent-to-treat analysis, there were no significant differences between the two arms in TTP (P=0.059) as well as in overall survival (OS) (P=0.38).
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Papadimitriou, C., Dafni, U., Anagnostopoulos, A. et al. High-dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplantation as consolidation treatment in patients with chemosensitive ovarian cancer: results of a single-institution randomized trial. Bone Marrow Transplant 41, 547–554 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705925
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705925
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