Gemcitabine as second-line chemotherapy in patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer: Review of four cases / 대한산부인과학회잡지

ABSTRACT

Adjuvant multiagent chemotherapy with platinum and paclitaxel after optimal cytoreductive surgery decisively improved survival rates of patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma. However, more than two- thirds of patients with advanced disease will encounter tumor progression, underlining the need for effective second-line strategies. Continued efforts to discover new active agents for the treatment of patients with ovarian carcinoma had identified gemcitabine. Four patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma, who were treated in Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital and recurred thereafter received gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m2 as a 30 min intravenous infusion on days 1, 8, and 15, which was repeated every 28 days. The disease progressed in two patients, while one showed stable disease and another reached complete response. One patient expired of disease two months after the completion of therapy. Grade 3 leukopenia was successfully managed using G-CSF. Regrowth of hair lost during previous chemotherapy occurred in all subjects. We report four cases of advanced recurrent ovarian carcinoma which were treated with gemcitabine.