gms | German Medical Science

27th German Cancer Congress Berlin 2006

German Cancer Society (Frankfurt/M.)

22. - 26.03.2006, Berlin

A phase II trial of gemcitabine plus treosulfan in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Alexander Schmittel - Charité, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Deutschland
  • Ronny Schuster - Charité, Campus Benjamin Franklin
  • Nikolaos Bechrakis - Charité, Campus Benjamin Franklin
  • Jan M. Siehl - Charité, Campus Benjamin Franklin
  • Michael H. Foerster - Charité, Campus Benjamin Franklin
  • Eckhard Thiel - Charité, Campus Benjamin Franklin
  • Ulrich Keilholz - Charité, Campus Benjamin Franklin

27. Deutscher Krebskongress. Berlin, 22.-26.03.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocPO611

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dkk2006/06dkk719.shtml

Published: March 20, 2006

© 2006 Schmittel et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Purpose: Preclinical studies suggested a synergy of treosulfan and gemcitabine in chemotherapy resistent tumors. This trial investigated the clinical efficacy of gemcitabine plus treosulfan (GeT) in metastatic uveal melanoma. Experimental Design: Patients received 1000mg/m2 of gemcitabine. Treosulfan was added in a dose of 2500 or 3000mg/m2 in cohort 1 or in a dose of 3500 or 4000 mg/m2 in cohort 2. Chemotherapy was administered on days 1 and 8, cycles were repeated on day 29. In the absence of disease progression a maximum of 6 cycles were administered.

Results: Thirty-three patients with metastatic uveal melanoma received therapy. Fourteen were accrued in cohort 1 and nineteen in cohort 2. In cohort 1 with a treosulfan dose < 3000mg/m2 no objective response was observed, four patients had stable disease and ten progressed. Of patients treated with > 3500mg/m2 in cohort 2 one had a partial remission, ten disease stabilisation and eight progressed. An increased survival in the second cohort with higher treosulfan doses was observed, with a median survival of 6.0 vs. 9.0 months (p=0.03) in cohort 1 and 2, respectively and a one year survival of 7.1% vs. 47.3%. A strong pretreatment prognostic factor for survival was the serum LDH level.

Conclusions: The recommended dose for treosulfan is 3500mg/m2. In a randomized phase II study we are currently comparing the GeT regimen versus a treosulfan monotherapy in metastatic uveal melanoma.