Surviving Ovarian Cancer by Chemo Dose
Reported March 11, 2008
TAMPA, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Reducing the dose of chemotherapy received by patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer may hurt their chances for both progression-free survival and overall survival.
Justin Chura, M.D., researcher at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pa., explained at the Society of Gynecologic Oncologist annual meeting in Tampa. Fla., the importance of maintaining dose intensity of standard dose chemotherapy when treating ovarian cancer.
In his study, Dr. Chura examined data compiled from ovarian cancer patients receiving platinum-based chemotherapy from databases at two separate university medical centers. Dose reduction of conventional chemotherapy regimens was associated with significantly worse progression-free survival and tended toward worse overall survival as well, Dr. Chura told Ivanhoe.
The researchers found patients who received a dose reduction experienced a recurrence after an average of 8.1 months, whereas patients who did not receive at dose reduction experienced recurrence an average of 20.4 months.
Dr. Chura said the next step in this research is to look closely at dose intensity differences. We are planning to go back and look at actual dose intensity versus planned dose intensity, Dr. Chura said. A larger data set will also be looked to further the analysis of chemotherapy dose reduction in the treatment of ovarian cancer.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Justin Chura, M.D., Society of Gynecologic Oncologists annual meeting in Tampa, Fla., March 9-12, 2008