Chronic low dose-intensity pegylated liposomal doxorubicin for advanced malignancies

David H. Henry, MD,¹ Susan Kilcoyne, RN,¹ Jonathan N. Latham, PharmD,² and Arthur P. Staddon, MD¹

¹Joan Karnell Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA; and ²PharmaScribe, LLC, Skillman, NJ

A retrospective analysis was conducted to evaluate the tolerability and effectiveness of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) in patients with advanced malignancies. Eighty patients received an initial dose of PLD of 20 mg/m² every 2 weeks (Q2W), including 47 with Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), 9 with hematologic tumors, and 24 with solid tumors. The median cumulative dose of PLD was 230 mg/m² (range, 20–2,320 mg/m²). PLD appeared to be effective in 94%, 46%, and 56% of patients with KS, solid tumors, and hematologic tumors, respectively. The rates of adverse events commonly reported with PLD were 31% for nausea, 21% for neutropenia, and 14% for thrombocytopenia. Most events were mild to moderate. No clinical signs or symptoms of cardiotoxicity were reported. Six percent of patients had mucositis (all grades), and 6% had hand-foot syndrome (all grades). Chronic low dose-intensity PLD has a good therapeutic index, and prospective tumor-specific studies further evaluating this regimen are warranted.

Commun Oncol 2007;4:441–445 print e-mail full text 95 kb