Chemotherapy for gestational trophoblastic tumors

Virtually 100% of patients with nonmetastatic and low-risk metastatic trophoblastic tumors are now curable by only conventional chemotherapeutic agents such as methotrexate, actinomycin D, or their combination with or without other agents. However, approximately 30% of high-risk patients with metastatic trophoblastic tumors are resistant to conventional chemotherapy. All of the high-risk patients resistant to chemotherapy are those with metastatic choriocarcinoma. Thus, the efficacy of multidrug chemotherapy and combination chemotherapy of cisplatin or VP16-213 with other agents is now being examined.