Evaluation of oral etoposide in combination with cisplatin for patients with recurrent cervical cancer: long-term follow-up results of a Japanese multicenter study.

AIM To evaluate the efficacy and toxicities of cisplatin and daily oral etoposide in patients with recurrent cervical cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Treatment was initiated with oral etoposide 25 mg/day for 21 consecutive days, with intravenous cisplatin at 50 mg/m², on day 1, every 4 weeks, then the etoposide dose was increased to 50 mg/day. RESULTS Thirty patients were enrolled in this study. Twenty-seven (90.0%) patients had a history of prior treatment (cisplatin with concurrent chemoradiotherapy in 15, radiation therapy in 3, chemotherapy in 1, and both radiation therapy and chemotherapy in 9), and 22 (73.3%) patients had a treatment-free interval of less than 6 months. NCI-CTC grade 3/4 hematologic toxicities were leukopenia in 19 (63.3%), neutropenia in 17 (58.6%), anemia in 15 (50.0%) and thrombocytopenia in 6 (20.0%). Four patients developed febrile neutropenia. NCI-CTC grade 3 nonhematologic toxicities consisted of nausea/vomiting in 2 (6.7%), anorexia in 4 (13.3%) and fatigue in 2 (6.7%). The overall response rate was 16.7% including one complete response. The median progression-free survival period and overall survival period were 4.5 and 9.7 months, respectively. CONCLUSION Combination chemotherapy consisting of oral etoposide and intravenous cisplatin is safe and effective for recurrent cervical cancer.