A new strategy of cancer therapy -Tumor dormancy therapy-

Abstract

We previously reported that we should first induce a prolonged cytostatic (dormant) phase rather than strive to shrink tumors, because the survival time of most patients with solid tumors depends on the length of the induced cytostatic (dormant) phase rather than on induced tumor reduction. To confirm this concept, we examined whether the survival of SD with a prolonged dormant phase is equal or superior to that of an "effective" (CR and PR) case in three late phase II clinical studies of patients with gastric cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. These results led to the conclusion that we can achieve survival without tumor shrinkage, and we call it "tumor dormancy therapy. "In order to apply our strategy in chemotherapy, we developed and established a new dose finding system "individualized maximum repeatable dose (iMRD)" instead of the present only dose finding system, maximum tolerated dose (MTD). Our results showed that chemotherapy by iMRD for pancreatic cancer using gemcitabine induced longer median survival without severe toxicities and may expect a tailor made dose treatment. A large-scale comparative clinical study is starting to verify such a potential. [Skin Cancer (Japan) 2003; 18 : 7-12]