[Current status of combination chemotherapy]

The current status of clinical investigations of combination chemotherapies was reviewed. A randomized trial comparing low-vs high-dose cisplatin conducted in cases of testicular cancer indicated that a high-dose regime (120 mg/m2 D1) was superior to a low-dose regime (15 mg/m2 D1-5) while similar studies conducted in head & neck cancer and cervical cancer showed no significant differences. PVB or BEP in testicular cancer and CAP in ovarian cancer appear to have on established clinical role, but other combinations containing CDDP for use on various tumors are in the stage of phase II trial. Alternating non-cross combination is an attractive direction in clinical investigation but no such regimes tested in the past has shown any significant superiority over the results obtained from standard combinations.