Carminomycin vs adriamycin in advanced soft tissue sarcomas: an EORTC randomised phase II study.

Eighty-three patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma who had received no prior chemotherapy entered a randomised phase II study comparing carminomycin (CMM) 20 mg/m2 with adriamycin (ADM) 75 mg/m2, both administered i.v. bolus every 3 weeks. Six patients were ineligible and response could not be evaluated in 6 additional patients. Thirty-eight evaluable patients received ADM and 33 received CMM. There was one complete response to ADM and 10 partial responses, an overall response rate of 29%. CMM showed significantly (P = 0.01) lower antitumour activity--one partial response (3%). Stabilisation of disease was similar in both arms (47 and 45%), but fewer patients progressed on ADM (24 compared to 52%). Durations of response dating from the start of chemotherapy were 5 months for complete remission on ADM, a median of 7 months (range 4-17) for partial response on ADM and 14 months for the one partial remission on CMM. Although the median time to progression for all patients receiving CMM (2 months) was significantly (P = 0.001) shorter than for those receiving ADM (5 months), patients on ADM had only a marginally significant longer duration of survival (P = 0.06) than the patients receiving CMM. A leucocyte nadir less than 2.0 X 10(9)/l occurred in 38% of patients receiving ADM and 43% receiving CMM. Anaemia and thrombocytopoenia were uncommon. Other toxicities such as nausea, vomiting, anorexia and alopecia were more severe in the ADM group. There was one infective death secondary to leucopoenia in the ADM arm, and one patient who had received 109 mg/m2 CMM + 255 mg/m2 ADM developed progressively fatal cardiomyopathy.