Objective: The objective was to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of combined therapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin (TC) in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma after the failure of first-line chemotherapy with gemcitabine and cisplatin (GC). Patients and Methods: This was a retrospective study including a total of 16 patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma who showed evidence of progressive and/or recurrent disease after first-line therapy with GC and subsequently received second-line chemotherapy consisting of paclitaxel (175 mg/m2) and carboplatin (area under the curve 5). TC therapy was repeated every 3 weeks and was continued until disease progression or intolerable toxicity was observed. Results: The baseline patient characteristics were rather favorable; only 3 of 16 patients had liver metastases and 7 patients had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0. Of these, response to TC therapy was achieved in 5 (31.3%), including 2 with complete and 3 with partial response. The median progression-free and overall survival times in the 16 patients were 7.9 and 17.3 months, respectively. Conclusions: TC therapy appeared to show modest activity with acceptable tolerability in patients refractory to GC therapy; therefore, TC chemotherapy might be considered as an alternative option as a second-line regimen for advanced urothelial carcinoma following GC therapy.

Keywords:
Urothelial carcinoma, Paclitaxel, Carboplatin, Second-line chemotherapy
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© 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel
2013
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