Abstract 5504: Combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel for the treatment of Korean children and adolescents with recurrent or refractory osteosarcoma

Background: The combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel (GEMDOX) has demonstrated promise in adult sarcomas. Still, its efficacy in children and adolescents with recurrent or refractory osteosarcoma is controversial, due to a relatively small number of cases. We evaluated the efficacy of this combination in Korean pediatric patients with recurrent or refractory osteosarcoma. Methods: A retrospective case review of 23 patients (15 male, 8 female) with recurrent or refractory osteosarcoma who received gemcitabine (675 – 900 mg/m2 intravenously on days 1 and 8) and docetaxel (100 mg/m2 intravenously on day 8) at the Korea Cancer Center Hospital was undertaken. Results: The patients (ages 7.8 – 12.4 years) received a total of 78 courses of GEMDOX chemotherapy (median 3 courses; range 1 – 8 courses). For the 23 patients, 13 patients received GEMDOX as adjuvant chemotherapy, and the remaining 10 cases were eligible for response evaluation; there were 3 partial response (PR) and 1 stable disease (SD). The overall objective response was 30% and disease control rate was 40%. Median duration of response was 6.5 months (range, 3 – 13 months). GEMDOX chemotherapy was well tolerated and no treatment related death was observed. The most common toxicity was myelosuppression, however, no infectious complication have occurred. Conclusion: The poor prognosis of patients with recurrent or refractory osteosarcoma, lack of effective salvage chemotherapy regimen, and case series reporting its activity, including ours, suggest that GEMDOX chemotherapy is beneficial in palliative setting and need to be considered for large scale clinical trials. Citation Format: Jun Ah Lee, Yunmi Ko, Dong Ho Kim, Ji Young Yoo, Eun Sil Park. Combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel for the treatment of Korean children and adolescents with recurrent or refractory osteosarcoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5504. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-5504