Paclitaxel and cisplatin for patients with advanced gastric cancer

ABSTRACT

Because of the unsatisfactory treatment results with 5-fluorouracil-based palliative combination chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer, we conducted this study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a combination of pacitaxel and cisplatin in patients with previously untreated metastatic or unresectable gastric adenocarcinoma. Twenty-five of 27 patients that were entered into this study between January 2003 and August 2005 received chemotherapy. Paclitaxel was administerd at a dose of 175 mg/m2 as a 3-hour intravenous infusion and Cisplatin at 75 mg/m2 as an intravenous infusion on day 1 every 3 weeks. Nine patients [36%] achieved a partial response, 7 patients [28%] a stable disease, and 5 patients [20%] progressed. The overall response rate was 36% [95% concidence interval [CI], 17 to 55%]. The median duration of the response was 7.8 months [95% CI, 6.6 to 9.0 months]. The median time to progression was 7.4 months [95% CI, 5.3 to 9.5 months], and median overall survival was 13.3 months [95% CI, 10.8 to 15.9 months]. The major toxicity was hematological, with grade 3 and 4 neutropenia in 10% [10/106] of the total cycles. The non-hematologic toxicity was mild, and grade 3 emesis was observed in 2 patients [8%]. The results suggest that a combination of paclitaxel and cisplatin is an effective and well-tolerated regimen for patients treated for advanced gastric adenocarcinoma