Impact of beta blocker medication in patients with platinum sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer—a combined analysis of 2 prospective multicenter trials by the AGO Study Group, NCIC-CTG and EORTC-GCG

Abstract

ObjectiveRetrospective analyses suggest that the treatment with beta blocker improves survival in patients with breast cancer and melanoma. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of medication with beta blocker in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. MethodsIncluded patients received treatment within two prospective clinical trials: AGO-OVAR 2.4 phase I trial (carboplatin/gemcitabine; N=25, protocol AGO-OVAR 2.4) and AGO led intergroup phase III trial (carboplatin vs carboplatin/gemcitabine; N=356, protocol AGO-OVAR 2.5, EORTC-GCG, NCIC CTG). Concurrent medication was documented after every cycle and thorough monitoring was conducted. ResultsDuring the studies 38 patients (9.97%) received a beta blocker as co-medication. Patients treated with beta blockers were significantly older than patients not treated with beta blockers. Response rates to chemotherapy were not different between patients treated with beta blockers and those who were not. After a median follow-up of 17months, 349 (91.6%) patients had progressive disease and 267 (70.1%) patients had died. No difference in median progression-free survival (7.79 vs 7.62months (p=0.95)) and overall survival (21.2 vs 17.3months (p=0.18)) was recorded for patients treated with and without beta blocker. In multivariate analyses including age, platinum free-interval, study treatment and ECOG performance status beta blocker treatment was not associated with a significant impact on progression-free survival (HR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.65–1.31; p=0.65) and overall survival (HR:0.74; 95%CI: 0.49–1.11; p=0.15). ConclusionsIn this series of recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer patients it could not be confirmed whether beta blocker treatment was associated with better or worse outcome.