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Efficacy of methotrexate/vinblastine/doxorubicin/cisplatin combination in gemcitabine-pretreated patients with advanced urothelial cancer: a retrospective analysis

Authors Karadimou A, Lianos E, Pectasides D, Dimopoulos MA, Bamias A 

Published 6 December 2010 Volume 2010:2 Pages 193—199

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/RRU.S13122

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 2



Alexandra Karadimou1, Evangelos Lianos1, Dimitrios Pectasides2, Meletios A Dimopoulos1, Aristotle Bamias1
1Department of Clinical Therapeutics, 2Second Department of Internal Medicine, University of Athens, Medical School, Greece

Objective: Second-line treatment options in advanced urothelial cancer are limited. We investigated the efficacy of a methotrexate/vinblastine/doxorubicin/cisplatin (MVAC) combination after failure of gemcitabine/platinum chemotherapy.
Patients and methods: Twenty-five patients with advanced urothelial cancer, who received second-line MVAC after first-line gemcitabine/cisplatin (n = 9) or gemcitabine/carboplatin (n = 16), were included in this retrospective analysis.
Results: Twenty-two patients (88%) relapsed within 6 months after first-line treatment. Following MVAC, there were 5 (20%) objective responses. Median follow-up was 20.2 months. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 3.8 months (95% CI: 2.3–5.2), and median overall survival (OS) was 9 months (95% CI: 6.6–11.4). Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0.1 versus 2 was associated with longer PFS (5 months versus 3.3 months, P = 0.049). Response or stabilization of disease during second-line chemotherapy predicted for a significantly longer PFS and OS (7.4 versus 3.5, P = 0.005; 15.5 versus 7, P = 0.046).
Conclusions: Second-line MVAC chemotherapy may result in prolonged survival in some patients with refractory disease. Further research in this field is necessary.

Keywords: MVAC, second line, bladder cancer

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