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A preliminary study presented at the
annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in May 2000 finds that
weekly doses of the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel
(brand name, Taxol) may benefit advanced ovarian cancer patients who
have become resistant to standard chemotherapy with a combination of platinum compound
(usually cisplatin) and paclitaxel. Though
the results must be confirmed in larger studies, researchers are optimistic, calling
treatment with paclitaxel alone a possible new option for ovarian cancer patients who
become resistant to initial chemotherapy.
The study included 41 women with advanced ovarian cancer who had become resistant to
treatment with a combination of paclitaxel and the chemotherapy drug, cisplatin (brand
name, Platinol). Each woman was given weekly
doses of paclitaxel. The results of the study
showed that tumors were reduced in size in 32% of the patients.
“These women had very resistant ovarian cancer, more so than patients in most
studies,” said Maurie Markman, MD, chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer
Center, in a press release. “Therefore,
it was unlikely they would respond to this treatment, which makes these results all the
more promising. These data suggest that women
with therapy-resistant ovarian cancer now have a new treatment option,” said Dr.
Markman.
In the study, the majority of
the patients only experienced mild side effects, including a lower white cell count
(increasing the risk of infection), nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. “We were impressed with the level of
tolerability achieved with this weekly regimen,” said Dr. Markman. “The majority of patients did not experience
significant side effects.”
In addition to treating ovarian cancer, paclitaxel is also used to treat early and late
stage breast cancer, certain types of
lung cancer, and in some cases, Karposi’s sarcoma (a cancer that begins as soft,
brownish, or purple nodules on the feet and spreads through the skin to the lymph nodes
and abdominal organs). Other common side
effects of paclitaxel that were not noted in this study include hair loss (alopecia), numbness in the
extremities, and muscle or joint pain (myalgia/arthralgia).
Approximately 25,500 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed each year, and an
estimated 14,500 women die from the disease each year. Often, the symptoms of ovarian
cancer are “silent,” making it difficult to diagnose the cancer until it has
progressed into advanced stages.
Currently, the five-year survival rate for all stages of ovarian cancer is 50%. Nearly 80% of ovarian cancer patients respond to
initial therapy, but as many as 70% of women will eventually become resistant to ovarian
cancer treatment.
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