Treatment of recurrent endometrial adenocarcinoma with a combination of doxorubicin and cisplatin.

Nineteen patients with recurrent endometrial carcinoma and one patient with Stage IV endometrial carcinoma not previously treated with chemotherapy were treated with a combination of doxorubicin and cisplatin. The dose schedule was doxorubicin, 50 mg/m2 on day 1, and cisplatin, 50 mg/m2 with hyperhydration on day 1, with a new course every 4 weeks. Objective response 60% was obtained in 12 out of 20 patients (two with complete remission and 10 with partial remission). Furthermore, four patients had stationary disease. The two patients with complete remission both had distal vaginal metastases, and they are still alive after greater than 21 and greater than 40 months. The median survival period for those with partial remission was greater than 11 months (range of 4 to 26); for those with stationary disease, 7 months (range of 4 to 10), and for those with progressive disease, 4 months (range of 3 to 7). The response rate was higher for well-differentiated tumors. No serious side effects were noticed. To our knowledge no other reports have been published so far with the use of the same regimen in patients with recurrent endometrial adenocarcinoma with no prior chemotherapy. We find the objective response rate, the survival time, and the quality of life for the responding patients in our study so encouraging that we shall continue with a larger trial.