Extended use of paclitaxel delays disease progression in advanced cases.

2003 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new study shows that women with advanced ovarian cancer who have responded well to first-line chemotherapy can significantly delay progression of the disease if they continue to take paclitaxel after their initial therapy.

"This is a landmark study that may have a profound impact on the care for a large number of women with ovarian cancer," said Maurie Markman, MD, chairman of the Department of Hematology/Medical Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic, and lead author of the study. "Our findings show, for the first time, that we can significantly increase the amount of time that patients live free from disease, an important goal of anti-cancer therapy."

The findings were reported in the July 1, 2003, issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Because more than 75% of women in remission from ovarian cancer experience cancer recurrence after initial therapy, researchers designed a study to see if continuing paclitaxel could help prolong progression-free and overall survival. Markman and colleagues identified patients with advanced ovarian cancer who had experienced a complete response to a combination chemotherapy regimen including paclitaxel, randomly assigning each patient to either 3 or 12 cycles of identical monthly doses of paclitaxel.

At the interim analysis performed with 222 patients, 34 patients on the 3-cycle arm experienced some form of disease progression, compared to only 20 patients on the 12-cycle arm. The median time to progression was 21 and 28 months in the 3-cycle and 12-cycle arms, respectively (Phase III randomized trial of 12 versus 3 month of maintenance paclitaxel in patients with advanced ovarian cancer after ...