Three-hour paclitaxel infusion and carboplatin is an effective outpatient treatment for stage III epithelial ovarian cancer

Objective. The aim of this study was to determine the response rate and toxicity of a 3-h paclitaxel infusion and carboplatin delivered as outpatient therapy for the treatment of stage III/IV epithelial ovarian cancer. Methods. Thirty patients with stage III/IV epithelial ovarian cancer underwent cytoreductive surgery. The first 10 patients received adjuvant paclitaxel 150 mg/m(2) via 3-h infusion on day 1 and carboplatin 5 times area under the curve on day 2 (group 1) every 28 days. The paclitaxel dose was escalated to 175 mg/m(2) for the next 20 patients (group 2). chi(2) and Kaplan-Meier procedures were used for statistical analysis. Results. Nine of 51 cycles in group 1 (17.6%) and 19 of 116 cycles (16.4%) in group 2 were associated with grade 4 neutropenia (P = 0.96), but only 2 of the 161 total cycles (0.01%) had fever and neutropenia. One patient in group 1 experienced grade 3 thrombocytopenia. Two patients in the entire group (7.4%) required colony-stimulating factors. One patient in group 2 (3.7%) had grade 3 neurotoxicity. With a median follow-up of 29 months for the entire group, 5 of 8 patients (62.5%) in group 1 and 14 of 19 patients (73.7%) in group 2 are alive. Median progression-free survival for group 1 and 2 is 13 and 14 months, respectively. Median overall survival has not been reached. Conclusions. Paclitaxel via 3-h infusion and carboplatin is an effective outpatient treatment for epithelial ovarian cancer that can be safely administered on schedule in the majority of patients. (C) 1998 Academic Press.