Pharmacokinetics of paclitaxel in a hemodialysis patient with advanced gastric cancer: A case report.

We report for the first time the possibility of weekly paclitaxel chemotherapy for a patient with advanced, nonresectable gastric cancer undergoing hemodialysis. A 50-year-old man with chronic renal failure due to bilateral polycystic kidneys, who had undergone hemodialysis three times a week for 5 years, presented with hematemesis in December 2004. Based on the diagnosis of gastric cancer with lymph node metastases, surgery was performed. On the 15th postoperative day, the patient was treated with chemotherapy using paclitaxel. Paclitaxel was administered at a dose of 60 mg/m2 as a 1 h iv infusion in 250 mL of saline. Hemodialysis was started 1 h after the completion of the paclitaxel infusion and was performed for 3 h. Paclitaxel was administered weekly on d 1, 8, and 15 on a 28-d cycle. The maximum plasma concentration of paclitaxel was 1390 microg/L. The area under the curve of paclitaxel was 4398.6 microg x h/L. Grade 2 leukopenia was encountered during the first cycle. The plasma concentrations of paclitaxel from 6 to over 24 h after the infusion were 0.01 to 0.1 micromol/L in our patient, and these concentrations have been shown to be effective on inhibiting the growth of gastric cancer cells without producing adverse side effects in the patient. The plasma concentration of paclitaxel was not influenced by hemodialysis. We conclude that the pharmacokinetics of paclitaxel is not altered in a patient with renal failure, and that weekly paclitaxel is a suitable treatment regimen for hemodialysis patients with advanced gastric cancer.