Efficacy and safety of gemcitabine plus docetaxel in Japanese patients with unresectable or recurrent bone and soft tissue sarcoma: Results from a single-institutional analysis

Abstract

BackgroundCombination therapy with gemcitabine and docetaxel has been reported to be a good therapeutic strategy for patients with soft tissue sarcoma. The aim of the present study was to analyze the efficacy and toxicity of gemcitabine with docetaxel in Japanese patients with advanced bone and soft tissue sarcoma.Patients and methodsWe retrospectively analyzed the effect of gemcitabine and docetaxel therapy on overall response, progression-free survival, overall survival, and toxicity in 42 patients with bone or soft tissue sarcoma who had received the therapy between October 2006 and September 2015, at Tohoku University Hospital.ResultsThe median age was 55 years; 23 patients were men, and 19 were women. Eight had bone sarcoma and 34 had soft tissue sarcoma. Forty patients (95%) had previously been treated with one or more chemotherapeutic regimens. The overall response rate was 6.9% and the disease control rate was 55%. The median progression-free survival was 2.3 months and the median overall survival was 14.3 months. Grade 3 or more neutropenia and febrile neutropenia were observed in 74% and 4.8% of all patients, respectively.ConclusionThe response rate was lower and myelosuppression was more frequently observed than in other previous reports. On the other hand, most of toxicities were enough manageable. In addition, some patients had long survival with a good response. Our study supports the notion that gemcitabine and docetaxel therapy is a good therapeutic option for treating patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma as well as bone sarcoma, also in Asian populations.

Combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel: a regimen overestimated in refractory metastatic osteosarcoma?

“…Doctors have tried to apply the same regimen in this set of patients. Unfortunately, the results of the studies using the same dosage and schedule in OS as that in STS were controversial and the number of patients was relatively small, ranging from 4 to 35 [ 11 – 18 , 27 , 28 ]. We used the GT in refractory metastatic OS from 2012 to 2017 and used the collected data to investigate the value of GT as salvage therapy.…”

“…In previous studies, GT was used as a second-line chemotherapy and response data was reported in ten of them [ 11 – 18 , 23 , 24 , 27 , 28 ]. These studies are reviewed in Table 4 .…”

“…This should be considered when drawing conclusions. Second, 3/10 [ 12 , 13 , 17 ], 2/10 [ 15 , 24 ] and [ 27 , 28 ] of the previous studies reviewed in Table 4 were reported from the same hospital or group at the same time. Thus, the duplication of data should be considered in the analysis.…”

Phase II trial of gemcitabine and nab‐paclitaxel in patients with recurrent Ewing sarcoma: A report from the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation

“…Five single-institution studies including a variety of tumor types have shown a collective objective response rate of 29% in the 16 cumulative patients with Ewing sarcoma. [3][4][5][6][7] However, in prospective multi-institutional trials for relapsed Ewing sarcoma, the response rate for 80 total patients was only 12%. 8,9 In the one study involving newly diagnosed patients with Ewing sarcoma, two cycles of GEM/DOC were used as an upfront window to treat 17 evaluable higher-risk patients.…”

Esophageal Carcinosarcoma with Basaloid Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

“…Docetaxel is a semisynthetic member of the taxoid class of antineoplastic agents. Docetaxel-based chemotherapy targeting sarcomatous components is currently used in several areas, such as bone, soft tissue or gynecological sarcomas, and showed favorable response rates (Hensley et al 2008;Takahashi et al 2017;Choi et al 2018). Thus, DCF that could be effective for both carcinomatous and sarcomatous components may be a rational option of preoperative chemotherapy for patients with esophageal carcinosarcoma.…”