Seventeen patients with enhanced measurable squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus were treated with topotecan 1.5 mg/m2 daily for 5 days repeated every 21 days. Toxicity was severe, with 1 death from myelotoxicity and 10 patients with life-threatening myelotoxicity. Severe gastrointestinal toxicity consisting of vomiting was also seen in three patients. No response was seen in any of the patients in the study. Topotecan given in this manner has no activity in squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus.
From Interlakes Oncology & Hematology, P.C. (R.F.A.), Rochester, New York; Dana Farber Cancer Institute (S.L.), Boston, Massachusetts; Carle Clinic (D.G.), Urbana, Illinois; University of Pretoria (C.I.F.), Pretoria, South Africa; San Juan City Hospital (L.B.), San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Northwestern University School of Medicine (A.B.B.), Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Robert F. Asbury, Interlakes Oncology & Hematology, P.C., 211 White Spruce Boulevard, Rochester, NY 14623, U.S.A.
This study was conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (Robert L. Comis, M.D., Chair) and supported in part by Public Health Service grants CA23318, CA21692, CA16395, CA17145, CA66636, CA21115 from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute.
