Purpose: To determine the feasibility of ambulatory infusional administration 24 hours per day, 7 days per week of a three-drug regimen of cisplatin or carboplatin, leucovorin, and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) (PLF) utilizing an alternating weekly sequential design and to introduce infusional etoposide as PLEF to the regimen.
Patients and methods: Forty-three patients with diverse malignancies received a sequential infusion of 5-FU 200 mg/M2/day on days 1 to 14 and 21 to 35 with leucovorin admixed for day 1 to 7 and 21 to 28. Cisplatin (20 patients) or carboplatin (23 patients) infusion was administered at a dose of 10 mg/M2/day or 30 mg/M2/day, respectively, day 7 to 14 and 35 to 42. Cycles were planned to be repeated consecutively in the absence of toxicity in patients with stable or responding disease. Sixteen patients also received etoposide 30 mg/M2/day as an admixture concomitant with administration of the platinum analogue. Therefore, the distribution of therapies was PLF 19, CLF 8, PLEF 14, and CLEF 2.
Results: A total of 63 courses of PLF +/- E was administered as outlined above. Hematologic toxicity was minimal with or without the addition of etoposide. Sixteen percent of patients developed an elevated creatinine with a median of 1.6 and a range of 1.6 to 3.2 mg %. Tumor responses were observed in seven of fourteen evaluable patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lung (all of whom received concomitant etoposide). In addition, one patient with metastatic gallbladder cancer achieved a complete clinical response.
Conclusion: Ambulatory infusional PLF with carboplatin or cisplatin using sequentially alternating delivery of the component antineoplastic agents is feasible and active with minimal toxicity. The addition of infusional etoposide to the PLF regimen does not substantially increase hematologic toxicity. Extended phase II studies in aerodigestive cancers are ongoing and a phase III trial comparing this ambulatory regimen to short-term PLF infusion (5-day) may be justified to compare the relative cost and benefits of the two schedules.