http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/early/2012/10/17/JCO.2011.41.5703.abstract
* ©American Society of Clinical Oncology
Randomized Controlled Trial of Interval-Compressed Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Localized Ewing Sarcoma: A Report From the Children’s Oncology Group
1. Richard B. Womer
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1. Richard B. Womer, Bruce R. Pawel, and John P. Dormans, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Daniel C. West, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco; Mark D. Krailo, Children’s Oncology Group, Arcadia, CA; Paul S. Dickman, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ; Holcombe E. Grier, Karen Marcus, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA; Scott Sailer, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC; John H. Healey, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; Aaron R. Weiss, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, NJ.
1. Corresponding author: Richard B. Womer, MD, Division of Oncology, CTRB 10, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 3501 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104; e-mail: rwomer@upenn.edu
Abstract
Purpose Chemotherapy with alternating vincristine-doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide-etoposide cycles and primary tumor treatment with surgery and/or radiation therapy constitute the usual approach to localized Ewing sarcoma in North America. We tested whether chemotherapy intensification through interval compression could improve outcome.
Patients and Methods This was a prospective, randomized controlled trial for patients younger than 50 years old with newly diagnosed localized extradural Ewing sarcoma. Patients assigned to standard and intensified treatment were to begin chemotherapy cycles every 21 and 14 days, respectively, provided an absolute neutrophil count greater than 750 × 106/L and a platelet count greater than 75 × 109/L. Patients received vincristine (2 mg/m2), doxorubicin (75 mg/m2), and cyclophosphamide (1.2 g/m2) alternating with ifosfamide (9 g/m2) and etoposide (500 mg/m2) for 14 cycles, with filgrastim (5 mg/kg per day; maximum, 300 mg) between cycles. Primary tumor treatment (surgery, radiation, or both) was to begin at week 13 (after four cycles in the standard arm and six cycles in the intensified arm). The primary end point was event-free survival (EFS). The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT00006734
Results Five hundred eighty-seven patients were enrolled and randomly assigned, and 568 patients were eligible, with 284 patients in each regimen. For all cycles, the median cycle interval for standard treatment was 21 days (mean, 22.45 days); for intensified treatment, the median interval was 15 days (mean, 17.29 days). EFS at a median of 5 years was 65% in the standard arm and 73% in the intensified arm (P = .048). The toxicity of the regimens was similar.
Conclusion For localized Ewing sarcoma, chemotherapy administered every 2 weeks is more effective than chemotherapy administered every 3 weeks, with no increase in toxicity.
* Received January 6, 2012. * Accepted July 24, 2012.