WEDNESDAY, Oct. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Cisplatin alone is just as effective as, but less toxic than, cisplatin plus doxorubicin in children with standard-risk hepatoblastoma, according to a study in the Oct. 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Giorgio Perilongo, M.D., from the University Hospital of Padua in Italy, and colleagues randomly assigned 255 children with standard-risk hepatoblastoma (three or fewer sectors of the liver, alpha-fetoprotein greater than 100 ng per milliliter) to cisplatin alone or cisplatin plus doxorubicin for three cycles before surgery and two cycles after surgery.
The researchers found that the complete resection rate was 95 percent in the cisplatin group and 93 percent for combination treatment. After a median follow-up of 46 months, the cisplatin and cisplatin-doxorubicin groups had similar three-year survival (83 versus 85 percent) and overall survival (95 versus 93 percent). However, acute grade 3 or 4 adverse events were more common with combination treatment (74.4 versus 20.6 percent).
"As compared with cisplatin plus doxorubicin, cisplatin monotherapy achieved similar rates of complete resection and survival among children with standard-risk hepatoblastoma," Perilongo and colleagues conclude. "Doxorubicin can be safely omitted from the treatment of standard-risk hepatoblastoma."
Abstract
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