Liposomal amphotericin B is as effective as conventional amphotericin B for empirical antifungal therapy in patients with fever and neutropenia, and it is associated with fewer breakthrough fungal infections, less infusion-related toxicity, and less nephrotoxicity.

Voriconazole is a suitable alternative to amphotericin B preparations for empirical antifungal therapy in patients with neutropenia and persistent fever.

Background High-grade osteosarcoma is a primary malignant bone tumour mainly affecting children and young adults. The European and American Osteosarcoma Study (EURAMOS)-1 is a collaboration of four study groups aiming to improve outcomes of this rare disease by facilitating randomised controlled trials. Methods Patients eligible for EURAMOS-1 were aged ≤40 years with M0 or M1 skeletal high-grade osteosarcoma in which case complete surgical resection at all sites was deemed to be possible. A three-drug combination with methotrexate, doxorubicin and cisplatin was defined as standard chemotherapy, and between April 2005 and June 2011, 2260 patients were registered. We report survival outcomes and prognostic factors in the full cohort of registered patients. Results For all registered patients at a median follow-up of 54 months (interquartile range: 38–73) from biopsy, 3-year and 5-year event-free survival were 59% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 57–61%) and 54% (95% CI: 52–56%), respectively. Multivariate analyses showed that the most adverse factors at diagnosis were pulmonary metastases (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.34, 95% CI: 1.95–2.81), non-pulmonary metastases (HR = 1.94, 95% CI: 1.38–2.73) or an axial skeleton tumour site (HR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.10–2.13). The histological subtypes telangiectatic (HR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.33–0.80) and unspecified conventional (HR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.52–0.88) were associated with a favourable prognosis compared with chondroblastic subtype. The 3-year and 5-year overall survival from biopsy were 79% (95% CI: 77–81%) and 71% (95% CI: 68–73%), respectively. For patients with localised disease at presentation and in complete remission after surgery, having a poor histological response was associated with worse outcome after surgery (HR = 2.13, 95% CI: 1.76–2.58). In radically operated patients, there was no good evidence that axial tumour site was associated with worse outcome. Conclusions In conclusion, data from >2000 patients registered to EURAMOS-1 demonstrated survival rates in concordance with institution- or group-level osteosarcoma trials. Further efforts are required to drive improvements for patients who can be identified to be at higher risk of adverse outcome. This trial reaffirms known prognostic factors, and owing to the large numbers of patients registered, it sheds light on some additional factors to consider.

SummaryBackgroundWe designed the EURAMOS-1 trial to investigate whether intensified postoperative chemotherapy for patients whose tumour showed a poor response to preoperative chemotherapy (≥10% viable tumour) improved event-free survival in patients with high-grade osteosarcoma.MethodsEURAMOS-1 was an open-label, international, phase 3 randomised, controlled trial. Consenting patients with newly diagnosed, resectable, high-grade osteosarcoma aged 40 years or younger were eligible for randomisation. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either postoperative cisplatin, doxorubicin, and methotrexate (MAP) or MAP plus ifosfamide and etoposide (MAPIE) using concealed permuted blocks with three stratification factors: trial group; location of tumour (proximal femur or proximal humerus vs other limb vs axial skeleton); and presence of metastases (no vs yes or possible). The MAP regimen consisted of cisplatin 120 mg/m2, doxorubicin 37·5 mg/m2 per day on days 1 and 2 (on weeks 1 and 6) followed 3 weeks later by high-dose methotrexate 12 g/m2 over 4 h. The MAPIE regimen consisted of MAP as a base regimen, with the addition of high-dose ifosfamide (14 g/m2) at 2·8 g/m2 per day with equidose mesna uroprotection, followed by etoposide 100 mg/m2 per day over 1 h on days 1–5. The primary outcome measure was event-free survival measured in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00134030.FindingsBetween April 14, 2005, and June 30, 2011, 2260 patients were registered from 325 sites in 17 countries. 618 patients with poor response were randomly assigned; 310 to receive MAP and 308 to receive MAPIE. Median follow-up was 62·1 months (IQR 46·6–76·6); 62·3 months (IQR 46·9–77·1) for the MAP group and 61·1 months (IQR 46·5–75·3) for the MAPIE group. 307 event-free survival events were reported (153 in the MAP group vs 154 in the MAPIE group). 193 deaths were reported (101 in the MAP group vs 92 in the MAPIE group). Event-free survival did not differ between treatment groups (hazard ratio [HR] 0·98 [95% CI 0·78–1·23]); hazards were non-proportional (p=0·0003). The most common grade 3–4 adverse events were neutropenia (268 [89%] patients in MAP vs 268 [90%] in MAPIE), thrombocytopenia (231 [78% in MAP vs 248 [83%] in MAPIE), and febrile neutropenia without documented infection (149 [50%] in MAP vs 217 [73%] in MAPIE). MAPIE was associated with more frequent grade 4 non-haematological toxicity than MAP (35 [12%] of 301 in the MAP group vs 71 [24%] of 298 in the MAPIE group). Two patients died during postoperative therapy, one from infection (although their absolute neutrophil count was normal), which was definitely related to their MAP treatment (specifically doxorubicin and cisplatin), and one from left ventricular systolic dysfunction, which was probably related to MAPIE treatment (specifically doxorubicin). One suspected unexpected serious adverse reaction was reported in the MAP group: bone marrow infarction due to methotrexate.InterpretationEURAMOS-1 results do not s...

A B S T R A C T PurposeThe purpose of this study was to compare the outcome of patients with intermediate-risk rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) treated with standard VAC (vincristine, dactinomycin, and cyclophosphamide) chemotherapy to that of patients treated with VAC alternating with vincristine, topotecan, and cyclophosphamide (VAC/VTC). Patients and MethodsPatients were randomly assigned to 39 weeks of VAC versus VAC/VTC; local therapy began after week 12. Patients with parameningeal RMS with intracranial extension (PME) were treated with VAC and immediate x-ray therapy. The primary study end point was failure-free survival (FFS). The study was designed with 80% power (5% two-sided ␣ level) to detect an increase in 5-year FFS from 64% to 75% with VAC/VTC. ResultsA total of 617 eligible patients were entered onto the study: 264 were randomly assigned to VAC and 252 to VAC/VTC; 101 PME patients were nonrandomly treated with VAC. Treatment strata were embryonal RMS, stage 2/3, group III (33%); embryonal RMS, group IV, less than age 10 years (7%); alveolar RMS or undifferentiated sarcoma (UDS), stage 1 or group I (17%); alveolar RMS/UDS (27%); and PME (16%). At a median follow-up of 4.3 years, 4-year FFS was 73% with VAC and 68% with VAC/VTC (P ϭ .3). There was no difference in effect of VAC versus VAC/VTC across risk groups. The frequency of second malignancies was similar between the two treatment groups. ConclusionFor intermediate-risk RMS, VAC/VTC does not significantly improve FFS compared with VAC.

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Adults and children with SNCL have a similar prognosis when treated with the same chemotherapy. EFS in high-risk patients has been markedly improved by including IVAC in protocol 89-C-41, and excellent results can be achieved with only four cycles of therapy. In protocol 89-C-41, GM-CSF was not beneficial.

A B S T R A C T PurposeThe Ewing sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) is a group of malignant tumors of soft tissue and bone sharing a chromosomal translocation affecting the EWS locus. The Intergroup INT-0091 demonstrated the superiority of a regimen of vincristine, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin (VDC), and dactinomycin alternating with ifosfamide and etoposide (IE) over VDC for patients with nonmetastatic ESFT of bone. The goal of this study was to determine whether a dose-intensified regimen of VDC alternating with IE would further improve the outcome for patients with nonmetastatic ESFT of bone or soft tissue. MethodsPatients with previously untreated, nonmetastatic ESFT of bone or soft tissue were eligible. They were randomly assigned to receive standard doses of VDC/IE over 48 weeks or a dose-intensified regimen of VDC/IE over 30 weeks. ResultsFour hundred seventy-eight patients met eligibility requirements: 231 patients received the standard regimen; 247 patients received the intensified regimen. The 5-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival rates for all eligible patients were 71.1% (95% CI, 67.7% to 75.0%) and 78.6% (95% CI, 74.6% to 82.1%), respectively. There was no significant difference (P ϭ .57) in EFS between patients treated with the standard (5-year EFS, 72.1%; 95% CI, 65.8% to 77.5%) or intensified regimen (5-year EFS, 70.1%; 63.9% to 75%). Patients with soft tissue tumors accounted for 20% of the study population; there was no difference in outcome between patients with soft tissue and bone primary sites. ConclusionDose escalation of alkylating agents as tested in this trial did not improve the outcome for patients with nonmetastatic ESFT of bone or soft tissue.