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Published on: February 12, 2017
Combination chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel for advanced thymic cancer
Makoto Furugen1, Ikuo Sekine, Koji Tsuta
1Division of Internal Medicine and Thoracic Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tsukiji 5-1-1, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan.
Objective:
Thymic carcinoma is a rare cancer of the thymus, different from thymoma in respect of its malignant nature, and no standard chemotherapy for this cancer has been established yet.
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective review of the efficacy of combination chemotherapy with carboplatin (an area under the curve of 6) and paclitaxel (200 mg/m(2)) in 16 patients with histologically or cytologically proven thymic carcinoma, Masaoka Stage IVa/IVb or post-operative recurrent disease.
Results:
There were 13 males and 3 females, with a median (range) age of 56 (38-73) years. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common (n= 12), followed by undifferentiated carcinoma (n= 2) and others (n= 2). Four, nine and three patients had Stage IVa, IVb and post-operative recurrent disease, respectively. Two and four patients showed complete and partial responses, respectively, representing a response rate (95% confidence interval) of 37.5 (15.2-64.6)%. The median (95% confidence interval) progression-free and overall survivals in the 16 patients were 8.6 (1.8-15.3) and 49.4 (30.1-68.8) months, respectively.
Conclusions:
Combination therapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel yielded an objective response in about one-third of the patients with advanced thymic carcinoma.
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