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Treatment of metastatic melanoma by 24‐hour DTIC infusions and hemibody irradiation
Author(s) -
Thatcher Nick,
Anderson Heather,
James Roger,
Davenport Peter,
Craig Peter
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19860601)57:11<2103::aid-cncr2820571102>3.0.co;2-g
Subject(s) - medicine , chemotherapy , dacarbazine , melanoma , toxicity , metastatic melanoma , intravenous infusions , dose , surgery , gastroenterology , cancer research
Forty‐three patients with widely metastatic melanoma were studied. Visceral metastases were present in 79% of the patient group, including five patients with brain metastases. No patients were excluded because of “early death,” etc. , from analysis. All 43 patients received 24‐hour DTIC infusions. Dosages for individual patients ranged from 350 mg/M 2 to 2.5 g/M 2 , a maximum of 6 courses being given. A total of 155 courses was administered. Hemibody irradiation (HBI) was delivered after 1 or 3 courses of DTIC to the area of maximum disease in 23 patients. Fourteen of the 43 patients responded to DTIC chemotherapy (with one complete response), a response rate of 33%. Seven of the chemotherapy responders also responded in other sites to subsequent HBI, a response rate of 30% (7/23). No patient responded to HBI and not to DTIC. Median survival was 4 months (range, 1–15), and nine patients are still alive at 3 to 15 months. Toxicity was generally mild, although there was one possible treatment‐related death. Further exploration of DTIC infusion chemotherapy and HBI would be of interest.