Abstract
Occasionally long-term survival in disseminated melanoma can be obtained through chemotherapy. We treated 22 patients with disseminated melanoma with an outpatient regimen consisting of dacarbazine (DTIC) and carboplatin. Three patients had a complete response lasting 4+, 9 and 9 months (survival 4+, 10 and 16 months), respectively; 3 patients had a partial response lasting 4, 6 and 8 months (survival 6+, 11+ and 14 months), respectively. Overall response was 27% (95% confidence interval 11-50%). Toxicity was relatively mild and mainly due to nausea. In 3 patients the dose of carboplatin was reduced because of grade 4 haematological toxicity. This described easy outpatient regimen shows comparable results as other polychemotherapeutic regimens in disseminated melanoma, but with a relatively mild toxicity profile.
MeSH terms
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Adolescent
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Adult
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Ambulatory Care
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Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / adverse effects
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Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / therapeutic use*
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Brain Neoplasms / drug therapy
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Brain Neoplasms / mortality
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Brain Neoplasms / secondary
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Carboplatin / administration & dosage
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Carboplatin / adverse effects
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Dacarbazine / administration & dosage
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Dacarbazine / adverse effects
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Disease Progression
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Drug Evaluation
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Melanoma / drug therapy*
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Melanoma / mortality
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Melanoma / pathology
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Melanoma / secondary
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Middle Aged
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Nausea / chemically induced
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Neoplasm Metastasis
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Palliative Care
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Quality of Life
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Remission Induction
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Salvage Therapy
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Skin Neoplasms / drug therapy*
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Skin Neoplasms / mortality
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Skin Neoplasms / pathology
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Survival Analysis
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Thrombocytopenia / chemically induced
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Treatment Outcome