LONG TERM ORAL ETOPOSIDE AS SECOND-LINE THERAPY IN RECURRENT EPITHELIAL CARCINOMA OF THE OVARY

Background: The activity and toxicity of etoposide in women with recurrent ovarian cancer was evaluated in a case series of women with recurrent ovarian cancer who had measurable disease.
Methods: All patients had prior platinum-based chemotherapy and developed progressive disease. Etoposide was given as 50mg/day for 21 days every 4 weeks until progression of disease or prohibitive toxicity. Between December 1999 and January 2004, 32 patients were enrolled in this study.
Results: 30 patients received a total of 133 cycles of etoposide. Median age was 49 years (range, 19 to 75). The median number of etoposide cycles was 4 (range, 1 to 12). There were 5 partial responses (16.6%). The mean response duration was 4.8 months (range, 3.5 to 6), median progression-free interval (PFI) was 7 months (range, 3 to 13), and median survival time was 12.5 months (range, 1.3 to 36).
Conclusion: The major toxicity was leukopenia. One patient required red blood cell transfusions, and the main non-hematologic toxicity was nausea and vomiting. There were no treatment-related mortalities. Although etoposide appears to exhibit modest activity in recurrent ovarian cancer after platinum-based therapy, response and survival durations are short.

Keywords
Oral etoposide, recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer, second-line chemotherapy.