title: Phase II evaluation of peroral carmofur, cyclophosphamide, and hexamethylmelamine as a second-line therapy in advanced epithelial ovarian carcinoma.
abstract: A prospective phase II study was performed to evaluate the effect and tolerability of a peroral combination chemotherapy consisting of hexamethylmelamine, cyclophosphamide, and carmofur in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer previously heavily treated by cisplatin-based chemotherapy but no longer responding to it. Of the 27 patients 1 showed a clinical complete remission lasting 15+ months and 4 a partial remission of 6+ to 21 months. A further 7 patients had an unchanged situation of 4 to 13+ months. The median survival of the nonresponders was 3 months. The side effects were tolerable, mostly nausea and vomiting. Only 4 of 27 patients suffered from severe vomiting causing discontinuation of the therapy. The peroral ambulatory chemotherapy prolonged markedly the overall survival of about one-half of the patients with ovarian cancer who previously failed to respond to cisplatin-based chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Oulu University Central Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sipilä
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kivinen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gröhn
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vesala
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heinonen
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006585:Altretamine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011446:Prospective Studies
chemical_list: D003520:Cyclophosphamide; C017367:carmofur; D006585:Altretamine; D005472:Fluorouracil