Docetaxel for malignant mesothelioma: phase II study of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group

This Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group phase II trial was conducted to study the effectiveness of docetaxel in patients with malignant mesothelioma. Patients were treated with docetaxel 100 mg/m2 intravenously administered as a 1-hour infusion repeated every 3 weeks. The study accrued a total of 20 patients, 1 of whom was considered ineligible. Of the 19 eligible patients, 1 patient (5%) achieved a partial response, 3 patients (16%) had stable disease, 11 patients (58%) had progressive disease, and 4 patients (21%) were unevaluable. The study was terminated after the first accrual stage because of an insufficient number of complete or partial responses. To date, only 1 patient (with stable disease) has not relapsed. The estimated median survival time is 4 months and the estimated median time to treatment failure is 2.2 months. There were 3 early deaths associated with the treatment regimen: severe gastrointestinal toxicity, hemorrhage, and an acute pulmonary event. Docetaxel as a single agent does not demonstrate evidence of activity in malignant mesothelioma.