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. 1997;76(12):1636–1639. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1997.609

Continuous infusional topotecan in advanced breast and non-small-cell lung cancer: no evidence of increased efficacy.

P N Mainwaring 1, M C Nicolson 1, T Hickish 1, R Penson 1, S Joel 1, M Slevin 1, I E Smith 1
PMCID: PMC2228211  PMID: 9413954

Abstract

Two open, phase II studies were performed to evaluate the activity and toxicity of infusional topotecan in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and advanced breast cancer who had not received previous chemotherapy for metastatic disease. Twenty-five patients with an ECOG performance score < 2 were treated with infusional topotecan administered as a daily, continuous intravenous infusion starting at 0.6 mg m(-2) day(-1) (NSCLC) and 0.5 mg m(-2) day(-1) (breast cancer) for 21 days every 4 weeks. Three patients achieved a partial response as defined by WHO criteria: one with NSCLC (8%; 95% CI 0-39%) and two with advanced breast cancer (15%; 95% CI 2-45%). The major toxicities were neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, with one episode of neutropenic sepsis. These data suggest that topotecan delivered as a continuous intravenous infusion over 21 days as single-agent therapy does not appear to offer a clinical advantage over conventional 5-day schedules against advanced NSCLC and advanced breast cancer.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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