Abstract
BACKGROUNDWe report the responses, toxicities and long-term outcomes of gemcitabine, paclitaxel and oxaliplatin (GemPOx) regimen administered, in responsive patients, prior to single cycle marrow-ablative chemotherapy (thiotepa, etoposide and carboplatin) with autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell rescue (HDCx+AuHPCR).METHODSSince December 2009, 11 recurrent/refractory patients (10 MMGCT, 1 germinoma; 10 males; mean age 16.5 years, range 7–46 years) have been treated with up to four cycles of gemcitabine (800mg/M2), paclitaxel (170mg/M2) and oxaliplatin (100mg/M2) administered on one day at 14 days intervals.RESULTSAll 11 patients were enrolled on a prospective multi-center trial, which was closed in October 2019. Three patients achieved complete remissions (tumor marker and/or imaging studies), five achieved partial remissions, two developed disease progression (PD), and one was withdrawn after one cycle for severe paclitaxel neurotoxicity followed by rapid tumor progression and death. One patient with PD after one cycle had pathologically-confirmed metastatic transformation to pure embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, and rapidly expired. A second patient, with pure pineal choriocarcinoma, progressed after the second GemPOx cycle, ultimately died of tumor progression. Eight of the 11 responsive patients subsequently underwent HDCx+AuHPCR; five of these received some form of radiotherapy. Seven patients (six MMGCT, one germinoma) are alive and disease-free without recurrence for a mean of 94 months (range 74–118 months) since completion of therapy.CONCLUSIONGemPOx is an effective re-induction regimen for patient with recurrent CNS germ cell tumors, with acceptable toxicities; when followed by marrow-ablative chemotherapy and subsequent irradiation/re-irradiation, the regimen produces encouraging long-term disease-free survival.
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