Novel, dose intensive, single-agent cisplatin in the first-line management of advanced stage ovarian cancer

Cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy is the current standard chemotherapy for the management of advanced stage, epithelial ovarian cancer. However, correlation has been demonstrated previously between dose intensity and response for cisplatin, but not for the other cytotoxic drugs commonly used. We treated 46 consecutive, newly diagnosed patients following standard debulking laparotomy with cisplatin 60 mg m−2 every 2 weeks for a total of 8 cycles. Survival and toxicity were compared with those of a similar cohort of 24 consecutive, newly diagnosed patients treated with cisplatin 75 mg m−2 plus cyclophosphamide 600 mg m−2 every 4 weeks for 6 cycles, at the same institution immediately prior to the current cohort. The single-agent cisplatin cohort received a mean relative cisplatin-equivalent dose intensity of 1.43 compared with a received mean relative cisplatin-equivalent dose intensity of 0.88 in the combination chemotherapy cohort, a 62.5% increase in the cisplatin dose intensity. At 2 years, 69% of the patients receiving single-agent cisplatin were alive, compared with 38% of the group receiving the combination chemotherapy (P = 0.014). Alopecia (P < 0.00001) and myelosuppression (P < 0.0000001) were markedly less in the patient group receiving single-agent cisplatin. There was no significant difference in the incidence of neurotoxicity (P = 0.28) or nephrotoxicity (P = 0.38) between the two patient groups. In summary, relatively dose intensive, single-agent cisplatin given in a biweekly schedule for the first-line management of advanced stage, ovarian cancer produced a survival advantage compared with the previous combination cyclophosphamide/platinum combination chemotherapy. This novel therapy takes one-third less time to complete and causes fewer side effects than the current standard of combination cyclophosphamide and cisplatin.