Carboplatin therapy in advanced endometrial cancer
Article Abstract:
The results of treating 23 women with advanced endometrial cancer (cancer of the uterine lining) with carboplatin, a chemotherapeutic agent, are presented. The patients, whose average age was 67, had locally advanced or recurrent disease (12 women), distant metastases (cancer spread, 8), or local and distant disease (3). Carboplatin was administered every 28 days; during this period blood tests and X-ray studies were performed at regular intervals. Remission was defined as the complete disappearance of all evidence of disease for at least four weeks. According to these criteria, two patients showed complete remission and five showed a partial response (reduction of disease), for an overall response rate of 30 percent. However, both complete responders relapsed several months after starting therapy. Four patients were still alive when the report was written, between 839 and 987 days after their therapy started. The effectiveness of carboplatin against advanced endometrial cancer is equivalent to other agents, which have been tested against this disease. The major side effect of carboplatin was thrombocytopenia (decreased number of blood platelets, cells essential for clotting), which necessitated treatment delays or dose reductions for approximately one-third of the patients. Carboplatin offers some advantages over other agents, such as its relatively low levels of neurotoxicity (causing nerve damage) and nephrotoxicity (causing kidney damage). It is also promising for use in combination with other agents. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Obstetrics and Gynecology
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0029-7844
Year: 1990
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Serial CA 125 levels during chemotherapy for metastatic or recurrent endometrial cancer
Article Abstract:
CA 125 is a protein in the blood whose levels increase with progression of some cancers. It is detectable by laboratory tests, and its levels correlate well with regression or progression of ovarian cancer in 93 percent of patients. One report suggests that the protein is also useful in monitoring endometrial cancer (of the uterine lining). This possibility was evaluated in a study of 21 women with metastatic (cancer that has spread) or recurrent endometrial cancer. The patients' CA 125 levels were monitored before each chemotherapy treatment; a total of 275 courses of chemotherapy were administered. The disease responded to chemotherapy or remained stable in 20 cases; in all these patients, the levels of CA 125 levels became or remained negative. Nine women responded initially and then relapsed; CA 125 levels increased simultaneously with relapse in four cases and increased prior to relapse in five. The sensitivity (ability of the test to correctly identify patients with spread or recurrence) of the pre-treatment CA 125 test was 80 percent; for monitoring disease progression, the sensitivity was 90 percent. Its specificity (ability of the test to exclude patients who did not have spread or recurrence) was 100 percent. The study indicates that repeated measurement of CA 125 can be helpful, as it is in ovarian cancer, in determining when to institute or reinstitute chemotherapy for recurrent endometrial cancer. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Obstetrics and Gynecology
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0029-7844
Year: 1991
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