ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Few new compounds are available for relapsed osteosarcoma. We retrospectively evaluated the activity of gemcitabine (G) plus docetaxel (D) in patients with relapsed high-grade osteosarcoma and high-grade spindle cell sarcoma of bone (HGS). METHODS: Patients receiving G 900 mg/m(2) d 1, 8; D 75 mg/m(2) d 8, every 21 days were eligible. Primary end-point: progression-free survival (PFS) at 4 months; secondary end-point: overall survival (OS) and response rate. RESULTS: Fifty-one patients were included, with a median age of 17 years (8-71), 26 (51%) were pediatric patients. GD line of treatment: 2nd in 14 patients, ≥3rd in 37. 25 (49%) patients had metastases limited to lungs, 26 (51%) multiple sites. HISTOLOGY: 40 (78%) osteosarcoma, 11 (22%) HGS. Eight (16%) patients achieved surgical complete response (sCR2) after GD. Four-month PFS rate was 46%, and significantly better for patients with ECOG 0 (ECOG 0: 54% vs ECOG 1: 43% vs ECOG 2: 0%; p = 0.003), for patients undergoing metastasectomy after GD (sCR2 75% vs no-sCR2 40 %, p = 0.02) and for osteosarcoma (osteosarcoma 56% vs HGS 18%; p = 0.05), with no differences according to age, line of treatment, and pattern of metastases. Forty-six cases had RECIST measurable disease: 6 (13%) patients had a partial response (PR), 20 (43%) had stable disease (SD) and 20 (43%) had progressive disease (PD). The 1-year OS was 30%: 67% for PR, 54% for SD and 20% for PD (p = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: GD is an active treatment for relapsed high-grade osteosarcoma, especially for ECOG 0 patients, and should be included in the therapeutic armamentarium of metastatic osteosarcoma.
Subject(s)
Neoplasm Recurrence, Local/drug therapy , Osteosarcoma/drug therapy , Sarcoma/drug therapy , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Child , Deoxycytidine/administration & dosage , Deoxycytidine/analogs & derivatives , Disease-Free Survival , Docetaxel , Female , Humans , Kaplan-Meier Estimate , Male , Middle Aged , Neoplasm Grading , Neoplasm Recurrence, Local/pathology , Osteosarcoma/pathology , Recurrence , Sarcoma/pathology , Taxoids/administration & dosage , Treatment Outcome , GemcitabineABSTRACT
A solid-phase immunoadsorption procedure (Quantigen T&B cell kit; Bio-Rad Laboratories, Richmond, Calif.) employing monoclonal antibody T101 detected mean percentages of peripheral blood T cells comparable to those obtained by rosetting with sheep erythrocytes, while lower values were obtained with an indirect immunofluorescence procedure (Cytotag T&B cell kit; Hybritech, Inc., San Diego, Calif.) employing the same antibody. Therefore, T101 binding appears to be more easily detected by solid-phase immunoadsorption than by immunofluorescence microscopy.