Severe pulmonary toxicity in patients with leiomyosarcoma after treatment with gemcitabine and docetaxel

Lung

The lungs are particularly sensitive to RT, and are often the primary dose-limiting structure during thoracic therapy.

The alveolar/capillary units and pneumocytes within the alveoli appear to be particularly sensitive to RT.

Hypoxia may be important in the underlying physiology of RT-associated lung injury.

The cytokine transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), plays an important role in the development of RT-induced fibrosis.

The histopathological changes observed in the lung after RT are broadly characterized as diffuse alveolar damage.

The interaction between pre-treatment PFTs and the risk of symptomatic lung injury is complex. Similarly, the link between changes in PFTs and the development of symptoms is uncertain.

The incidence of symptomatic lung injury increases with increase in most dosimetric parameters. The mean lung dose (MLD) and V20 have been the most-often considered parameters. MLD might be a preferable metric since it considers the entire 3D dose distribution.

Radiation to the lower lobes appears to be more often associated with clinical symptoms than is radiation to the upper lobes. This might be related to incidental cardiac irradiation. In pre-clinical models, there appears to be a complex interaction between lung and heart irradiation.

TGF-β has been suggested in several studies to predict for RT-induced lung injury, but the data are still somewhat inconsistent.

Oral prednisone (Salinas and Winterbauer 1995), typically 40–60 mg daily for 1–2 weeks with a slow taper, is usually effective in treating pneumonitis. There are no widely accepted treatments for fibrosis.

A number of chemotherapeutic agents have been suggested to be associated with a range of pulmonary toxicities.

Pulmonary toxicity among cancer patients treated with a combination of docetaxel and gemcitabine: a meta-analysis of clinical trials

PURPOSE

The combination of docetaxel and gemcitabine was tested in several studies in patients with lung, breast, and pancreatic cancers and other tumor entities. Some studies reported cases of severe or even fatal pulmonary toxicity that led to early termination of some trials. We created a meta-analysis model of published studies to identify explanatory factors for docetaxel-gemcitabine-dependent pulmonary toxicity.

METHODS

We searched MEDLINE/Pubmed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Clinical Trials database for prospective full-text studies that used a schedule of docetaxel and gemcitabine to treat a malignant disease. We performed a meta-analysis for proportions using the arcsine transformation and a meta-regression using a generalized linear mixed model based on a binomial distribution and a logit link.

RESULTS

We included 103 trials with 113 treatment arms comprising 5,065 patients (major entities included non-small cell lung cancer (n = 2,550), breast cancer (n = 1,119), pancreatic cancer (n = 466), and urothelial cancer (n = 161)). For the incidence of severe lung toxicity (common toxicity criteria [CTC] grades 3-5), we found a combined estimate of 2.70% (95% CI 2.26, 3.14). The estimate for the proportion of fatal cases was 0.35% (95% CI 0.21, 0.58). We found that the sequence of the chemotherapy schedule had no influence on the incidence of severe pulmonary adverse events (F-test F = 0.65, df = 3,113, P = 0.58) nor did the study phase, treatment line or ethnicity of the participants. We found that patients with breast cancer, compared to lung cancer patients, developed severe lung toxicity less frequently (OR = 0.18, 95% CI (0.09, 0.36)).

CONCLUSION

We could not demonstrate that a particular chemotherapy sequence of docetaxel-gemcitabine is associated with excess pulmonary toxicity. Patients with lung cancer are at a higher risk for severe pulmonary side effects with docetaxel-gemcitabine than are patients with breast cancer.

Locally advanced breast cancer: pulmonary toxicity secondary to gemcitabine

Gemcitabine is indicated for the treatment of nonmicrocytic lung, breast, pancreatic, bladder and ovarian cancer. Mild dyspnea has been reported but the incidence of severe lung damage is low. We report the case of a 58-year-old woman diagnosed with locally advanced infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast who received gemcitabine as part of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and suffered from severe pulmonary toxicity. We reviewed the cases published in the literature and conclude that although Gemcitabine is generally well tolerated, pulmonary toxicity requires high level of suspicion and prompt treatment to prevent an unfavourable outcome.

Fixed-dose rate gemcitabine plus docetaxel as second-line therapy for metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma: a Gynecologic Oncology Group phase II study

OBJECTIVE

Doxorubicin-based treatment is standard therapy for metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma. There is no standard second-line therapy. We determined activity of fixed-dose rate gemcitabine plus docetaxel as second-line treatment for metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma.

METHODS

Eligible women with unresectable uterine leiomyosarcoma progressing after prior cytotoxic therapy were treated with gemcitabine 900 mg/m(2) days one and eight over 90 min, plus docetaxel 100 mg/m(2) on day 8 of a 21-day cycle with granulocyte growth factor. Patients with prior pelvic radiation received lower doses. Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) response was assessed by computed tomography (CT).

RESULTS

Forty-eight of 51 women were evaluable for response (one wrong histology, two never treated). Prior therapy was doxorubicin-based in 90%, and ifosfamide-based in 6%. The overall objective response rate is 27%, with complete response in 6.3% (3/48), and partial response in 20.8% (10/48). An additional 50% (24/48) had stable disease (median duration 5.4 months). The median number of cycles per patient was 5.5 (range 1-22); 73% of patients remained progression-free at 12 weeks and 52% at 24 weeks. The predominant toxicity was uncomplicated myelosuppression: thrombocytopenia grade 3 (29%), grade 4 (10.4%); neutropenia grade 3 (12.5%), grade 4 (8.3%) anemia grade 3 (20.8%), grade 4 (4.2%). While pulmonary toxicity was reported, no patient had drug-related pneumonitis/hypoxia-type toxicity. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 5.6+ months (range 0.7-27+ months). The median duration of objective response was 9+ months (range 3.9-24.5+ months).

CONCLUSION

Fixed-dose rate gemcitabine plus docetaxel is active second-line therapy for uterine leiomyosarcoma.

Fixed-dose rate gemcitabine plus docetaxel as first-line therapy for metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma: a Gynecologic Oncology Group phase II trial

OBJECTIVES

Fixed-dose rate gemcitabine plus docetaxel is active as second-line therapy for metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma. We sought to determine the activity of this regimen as first-line treatment.

METHODS

Eligible women with advanced uterine leiomyosarcoma were treated with gemcitabine 900 mg/m(2) over 90 min, on days one and eight, plus docetaxel 100 mg/m(2) on day eight, with granulocyte growth factor support on day nine of a 21-day cycle. Patients with prior pelvic radiation received lower doses. Patients were treated until progression or unacceptable toxicity. Response was assessed every other cycle by RECIST.

RESULTS

Forty-two women enrolled, with 39 evaluable for response. Objective responses were observed in 15 of 42 patients (35.8% overall; complete response 4.8%, partial response 31%, 90% confidence interval 23.5 to 49.6%), with an additional 11 (26.2%) having stable disease. Nineteen of 38 (50%) received six or more cycles of study treatment. Myelosuppression was the major toxicity: neutropenia grade 3 in 5%, grade 4 in 12%; anemia grade 3 in 24%; thrombocytopenia grade 3 in 9.5%, grade 4 in 5%. One patient had a grade 3 allergic reaction, 17% had grade 3 fatigue. One possibly-related grade 4 pulmonary toxicity was observed. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 4.4 months (range 0.4 to 37.2+ months). Among 15 women with objective response, median response duration was 6 months (range 2.1 to 33.4+ months). Median overall survival was 16+ months (range:.4-41.3 months).

CONCLUSION

Fixed-dose rate gemcitabine plus docetaxel achieves high objective response rates as first-line therapy in metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma.