Effectiveness and safety of cabazitaxel chemotherapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostatic carcinoma on Turkish patients (The Anatolian Society of Medical Oncology).

OBJECTIVE: Prostate cancer is among the most common cancers in males. Prostate cancer is androgen dependent in the beginning, but as time progresses, it becomes refractory to androgen deprivation treatment. At this stage, docetaxel has been used as standard treatment for years. Cabazitaxel has become the first chemotherapeutic agent which has been shown to increase survival for patients with metastatic Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC) that progresses after docetaxel. Phase 3 TROPIC study demonstrated that cabazitaxel prolongs survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study, we evaluated a total of 103 patients who took cabazitaxel chemotherapy for mCRPC diagnosis in 21 centers of Turkey, retrospectively. This study included patients who progressed despite docetaxel treatments, had ECOG performance score between 0-2, and used cabazitaxel treatment. Patients received cabazitaxel 25 mg/m2 at every 3 weeks, and prednisolone 5 mg twice a day. RESULTS: Median number of cabazitaxel cures was 5.03 (range: 1-17). Cabazitaxel response evaluation detected that 34% of the patients had a partial response, 22.3% had stable disease and 32% had a progressive disease. Grade 3-4 hematological toxicities were neutropenia (28.2%), neutropenic fever (14.5%), anemia (6.7%), and thrombocytopenia (3.8%). In our study, median progression-free survival (PFS) was 7.7 months and overall survival (OS) was 10.6 months. CONCLUSIONS: This study reflects toxicity profile of Turkish patients as a Caucasian race. We suggest that cabazitaxel is a safe and effective treatment option for mCRPC patients who progress after docetaxel. Moreover, ethnicity may play important roles both in treatment response and in toxicity profile.

The effect of small-molecular-weight heparin added to chemotherapy on survival in small-cell lung cancer - A retrospective analysis.

Aims and Background: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a chemotherapy-responsive tumor and associated with alterations in the coagulation system. Addition of low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) to combination chemotherapy (CT) had resulted in increase in survival. The present retrospective trial was designed to determine whether the duration of dalteparin usage has an effect on progression and survival. Materials and Methods: The medical records of 67 patients with SCLC who were given cisplatin-etoposide and concomitant LMWH (dalteparin) was evaluated retrospectively. Results: Median follow-up of patients was 11.3 months. Outcome: 10.6% complete response, 3.0% good partial response, 36.4% partial response, 10.6% stable disease, and 39.4% progressive disease. Side-effects were seen in 40.3% of the patients. Median dalteparin duration was 6,1 months. According the duration of dalteparin patients were grouped in three: who took dalteparin less than 4 months (Group A), 4-6 months (Group B) and more than 6 months (Group C). Mean overall survival (OS) in Group A was 6.5 months, in Group B 11.8 months, and Group C 14.6 months. Mean OS in Group B and C were statistically significantly (P < 0.001) longer than Group A, between Group B and C there was not any significant difference (P = 0.037). Mean progression free survival (PFS) was 9 months. Conclusions: The CT plus LMWH minimum 4 months long is well-tolerable, and may improve PFS and OS in patients with SCLC. For treatment of patients with SCLC CT plus LMWH may be considered as effective future-therapy, and further multi-centre randomised prospective clinical trials must be done to determine the new standard treatment approach for SCLC.