title: Carcinoma of unknown primary site treated with Carboplatin + Paclitaxel + bevacizumab + erlotinib and its maintenance chemotherapy.
abstract: About 3% of all cancer patients suffer from carcinoma of unknown primary site (CUP). In spite of its rarity, we will encounter them. While CUPs manifest a wide variety of clinical presentations, they have often resulted in poor prognosis. Although platinum/taxane combination chemotherapy, e.g. carboplatin (CBDCA) + paclitaxel (PTX) is widely used for patients suffering from CUP, the response rate is only about 30-40% and the median overall survival (OS) is only 9 months, which means that improvement is needed. Among the new regimens, the combination of CBDCA, PTX, bevacizumab (BEV) and erlotinib is thought to be highly promising. Herein, we report a case with CUP treated with this regimen and his maintenance therapy. Our patient was a 75-year-old man who was admitted with a left neck lump. CT revealed systemic massive lymphadenopathy. In spite of various investigations for primary origin, he was diagnosed with CUP and treated with CBDCA + PTX + BEV + erlotinib (AUC 6 + 175 mg/m(2) + 15 mg/kg + 150 mg). Since the evaluation of the efficacy indicated partial response, maintenance chemotherapy (BEV and erlotinib) was performed. Chemotherapy was continued for 9 months until the patient was in a progressive disease state with meningeal dissemination. He died 12 months after the initiation of chemotherapy, which is a longer period than the previously reported OS. Of note, according to our case, CBDCA + PTX + BEV + erlotinib and its maintenance chemotherapy are feasible and well tolerated for CUP.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Hirotoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yasui
authors.affiliation: Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuhide
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeyama
authors.affiliation: Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.affiliation: Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.affiliation: Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukui
authors.affiliation: Departments of Otorhinolaryngology, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Nagashima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoshihisa
authors.affiliation: Departments of Clinical Pathology, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Matsuyoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.affiliation: Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gonda
authors.affiliation: Departments of Respiratory Medicine, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryujiro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Suzuki
keywords: Bronchoscopy; Carboplatin + paclitaxel + bevacizumab + erlotinib; Carcinoma of unknown primary site; Immunohistochemistry; Maintenance chemotherapy