Purpose: This randomized multicenter study was designed to compare the activity of a high-dose doxorubicin-containing chemotherapy regimen with a conventional standard-dose regimen in adult patients with advanced soft tissue sarcomas (ASTS).
Patients and methods: Between 1992 and 1995, 314 patients were randomized to receive a standard-dose regimen (arm A), containing doxorubicin (50 mg/m(2) on day 1) and ifosfamide (5 g/m(2) on day 1), or an intensified regimen (arm B), combining doxorubicin (75 mg/m(2) on day 1), the same ifosfamide dose, and recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF; sargramostim, 250 microgram/m(2) on days 3 to 16); all courses were repeated every 3 weeks.
Results: The median age of the 294 eligible patients was 50 years. They received a median of five chemotherapy cycles. The median dose and relative doxorubicin dose-intensity achieved were 245 mg and 97% in arm A and 360 mg and 99% in arm B, respectively. Thirty-eight percent and 23% of patients presented with leiomyosarcomas and liver metastases, respectively. Objective responses were observed in 31 (21%) of 147 assessable patients in arm A and in 31 (23.3%) of 133 in arm B (P =.65). No change was observed in 41.6% and 46.2% of patients in arm A and B, respectively. Progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly longer in the intensive arm (P =.03). The median duration of the time to progression was 19 weeks in the conventional arm and 29 weeks in the intensified arm. There was no difference in overall survival (P =.98) between the two therapeutic arms. Toxicities were manageable in both arms. A grade 3/4 neutropenia and infection occurred in 92% and 4.6% of patients in arm A, respectively, and in 90% and 16.6% in arm B, respectively. Grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia was more frequent in arm B.
Conclusion: The use of rhGM-CSF allowed safe escalation of chemotherapy doses. Despite a 50% increase of the doxorubicin dose-intensity, the high-dose regimen failed to demonstrate any impact on survival in patients with ASTS. The low complete response rate, the high incidence of leiomyosarcomas, and liver metastases may in part explain these results. However, the lengthening of the PFS in the intensive arm, because of the quality of stable disease and inappropriate tumor evaluation policies that potentially lead to an underestimation of antitumor activity, does not definitively refute the use of a high-dose chemotherapy regimen in selected patients with ASTS.