Second platinum therapy in patients with uterine cervical cancer previously treated with platinum chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND

After the front-line platinum-based regimens including concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in patients with advanced or recurrent cervical cancer, platinum-based regimens are often used again.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We retrospectively studied the predictors of response to second platinum therapy and prognostic factors of survival of 65 women who had received ≥ 2 platinum-based regimens in order to evaluate the effects of platinum-free interval (PFI), i.e., the interval between the platinum therapies.

RESULTS

The median survival and PFI were 11.0 and 11.1 months, respectively. The response rate was 42% overall and 36% in the 36 patients who had received CCRT. The response rate increased in parallel with the length of the PFI. Multivariate analyses showed a PFI for ≥ 12 months (odds ratio [OR] = 0.20), a PS of 0 (OR = 0.16) and a maximum tumor diameter ≤ 30 mm (OR = 0.18) were predictive of response. Multivariate analyses also revealed a PFI for ≥ 6 months (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.44) and a PS of 0 (HR = 0.30) were prognostic of survival.

CONCLUSION

Our exploratory study demonstrated that PFI has both predictive and prognostic value for second platinum therapy in patients with advanced or recurrent cervical cancer.