[Clinical evaluation of M-VAC (methotrexate, vinblastine, adriamycin and cisplatin) chemotherapy for advanced urothelial cancer].

M-VAC (methotrexate, vinblastine, adriamycin and cisplatin) chemotherapy was performed on 27 patients with advanced urothelial cancer. The patients included 20 with bladder cancer, 4 with upper urinary tract cancer and 3 with both lesions. Complete response (CR) was observed in 2 (7.4 +/- 9.9%) patients and partial response (PR) in 10 (37.0 +/- 18.2%) patients after the treatment, i.e., the overall objective response rate was 44.4 +/- 18.7%. The rate of relapse or recurrence in the patients with CR and PR was 100% and 90.0%, respectively. The mean duration of the response was 18.5 +/- 13.4 months and 10.7 +/- 10.9 months for CR and PR, respectively. The overall survival rate after one year was 30.2%. Bone marrow suppression was the most serious side effect. The white blood cell count became below 1,000/microliters in 10 patients (36.7%). Among them, 4 patients suffered from sepsis. In conclusion, M-VAC chemotherapy was effective for induction therapy against advanced urothelial cancer, although the effective duration was short. Further maintenance therapy should be established.