Source: DGNews  |  Posted 9 years ago

By Adrian Burton

NICE, FRANCE -- October 19, 2002 -- A phase II study suggests that combined paclitaxel and carboplatin could be an effective and safe treatment for locally advanced/metastatic gastric cancer. The data were presented at the 27th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology.

"The median survival of patients with advanced gastric cancer is about 6 months," said George Samelis, Sub-director of the Oncology Unit, Hippokration Hospital, Athens, Greece. "Surgery is often very difficult, and first-line chemotherapy frequently fails after 3 months or so. Second-line alternatives are therefore needed."

Samelis' team investigated the use of this new combination with 19 patients (median age, 62 years; range, 45-75 years) all of whom had histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma of the stomach, and all had failed on first-line therapy. Thirty one percent of patients had metastases in the liver, 10 percent in the lung, 5 percent in the bones, 31 percent in the lymph nodes, and 26 percent in other sites, and 42 percent had suffered local recurrence. ECOG performance status ranged from 0 to 3.

The experimental treatment regimen consisted of paclitaxel 175 mg/m