ASCO: Aggressive Regimen Beneficial in Ewing's Sarcoma

May 26, 2008

In patients with Ewing's sarcoma, a chemotherapy regimen administered every two weeks produces better outcomes than a regimen administered every three weeks, and is not associated with increased toxicity, according to an early release on research to be presented May 30-June 3 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

MONDAY, May 26 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with Ewing's sarcoma, a chemotherapy regimen administered every two weeks produces better outcomes than a regimen administered every three weeks, and is not associated with increased toxicity, according to an early release on research to be presented May 30-June 3 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

Richard B. Womer, M.D., of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and colleagues randomly assigned 568 patients to receive vincristine, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and etoposide every two weeks or every three weeks.

After a median follow-up of three years, the researchers found that event-free survival was significantly higher in the two-week arm than in the three-week arm (76 percent versus 65 percent). They also found that the incidence and severity of side effects was similar between the two groups, including fever with low white blood cell count (7 percent versus 6 percent) and infection (4.8 percent versus 4.6 percent).

"These findings are convincing enough to change the standard of care for patients with localized Ewing's sarcoma," Womer said in a statement. "This study shows that progress against Ewing's sarcoma can be made by giving commonly used anti-cancer drugs in new ways."

Abstract