Intraperitoneal recombinant human endostatin combined with chemotherapy for refractory malignant ascites due to...

To evaluate the efficacy, safety and consequent impact on quality of life of a combined-modality using intraperitoneal recombinant human endostatin, Endostar and chemotherapy in patients with refractory malignant ascites caused by gastrointestinal cancer.

Patients received combined intraperitoneal therapy repeated 3 weeks, which consisted of 5-fluorouracil 600 mg/m2 and cisplatin 30 mg/m2 on day 1-3 followed by Endostar 60 mg on day 4.

A total of 18 patients were treated. The overall response rate was 55.6%, with a complete remission rate of 22.2%. The malignant ascites controlled rate was 77.8%. The median time to progression and overall survival was 2.6 and 4.9 months, respectively. Therapy-associated toxicities were generally mild to moderate treatment-related deaths. The mean Karnofsky performance status score was significantly improved from 59.4±2.49 at enrollment to 69.4±3.18 at 2 weeks after the first cycle of therapy (p=0.001). The mean score for overall ascites-associated symptoms was improved from 5.3±0.35 to 4.0±0.23 (p=0.004). Significant improvements of 6 individual symptoms were also observed.

The combined-modality using intraperitoneal Endostar and chemotherapy is effective and safe in selected patients with refractory malignant ascites due to gastrointestinal cancer and significantly improves patient's quality of life with encouraging survival, which merits further investigation.