Chemo Combo Shows Promise for Endometrial Cancer Patients

In a recent small study, patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer showed a response rate of 50% when treated with a chemotherapy combination of gemcitabine and cisplatin.

Until now, survival rates have been low for this group of patients whose options have been either limited or ineffective chemotherapy and hormonal treatment.

This Phase II study of 20 patients found that the combination of these two chemotherapy drugs currently used to treat other types of cancer limited the disease’s progression, increasing progression-free survival while maintaining tolerable toxicity levels. It is believed that when administered together, gemcitabine helps overcome cell resistance to cisplatin, throwing tumor cells a potent one-two punch.

“These results are encouraging, offering a new direction for our research for women who suffer from advanced disease,” says Jubilee Brown, M.D., associate professor in MD Anderson’s Department of Gynecologic Oncology and the study’s lead author.

Reported in March at a plenary session of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists’ 41st Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer.