[Efficacy of Amrubicin Monotherapy for Patients with Extrapulmonary Neuroendocrine Carcinomas Refractory to...

Standard regimens for extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinomas(EPNEC)are not established. Treatment used for small cell lung cancer is also used for EPNECs. Amrubicin(AMR) monotherapy is used as salvage therapy for small cell lung cancer, but its efficacy in EPNEC is not clear. The aim of this study was to estimate the efficacy of AMR monotherapy in EPNEC. We retrospectively investigated patients with EPNEC who received first-line platinum-based chemotherapy between April 2007 and March 2019. The time to treatment failure(TTF)and the efficacy and toxicity was analyzed in the patients who received AMR monotherapy. Among 43 patients with EPNEC, 14(13 males, one female; median age, 58 years)received AMR monotherapy. Primary site included the pancreas(n=3), stomach(n=3), rectum(n=1), anal canal(n=1), salivary glands(n= 1), urothelial(n=1), bladder(n=1), prostate(n=1), and 2 patients had primary unknown cancer. Pathological type included small cell(n=4), large cell(n=2), and other types(n=8). Prior chemotherapy comprised CDDP plus CPT-11(n =5), CDDP plus ETP(n=2), and CBDCA plus ETP(n=6). The median TTF was 49(20-61)days. One patient had a partial response and the disease control rate was 33%. The common adverse events of >Grade 3 were leukopenia(69%), neutropenia(62%), and febrile neutropenia(23%). AMR monotherapy was clinically effective and safe for EPNEC.