Denisse Castro, Liliana Vasquez and Mónica Oscanoa from the Departamento de Oncología Médica, Hospital Edgardo Rebagliati Martins, Essalud. Lima-Perú and the Unidad de Oncología Pediátrica y del Adolescente . Hospital Edgardo Rebagliati Martins, Essalud. Lima-Perú have published in Carcinos a article entitled : ¿Puede la quimioterapia metronómica mejorar la sobrevida libre de progresión y sobrevida global en pacientes pediátricos con sarcomas avanzados?: Experiencia preliminar.

In this article, they report their preliminary experience in 12 patients with osteosarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma metastatic at diagnosis or at relapse. Patients would receive :

 thalidomide (100mg/day)

 celecoxib (200 mg/day).

 alternating cyclophosphamide (100 mg/day for 3 weeks) and etopooside (50mg/day) + methotrexate (15 mg/m2, twice per week) for 3 weeks

without any break for a duration of 12 months

12 patients with osteosarcoma (8 cases) or rhabdomyosarcoma (4 cases) with a median age of 15.5 years old who previouly received 2 lines of treatment (median 1-4) are reported. Mean duration of the metronomic treatment was 12 months (range 6-25 months). PFS was 24 months (range 22-72 months). No patient stopped treatment because of toxicity. Grade III/IV toxicities were observed in 25% of the patients. After starting metronomic therapy, OS and PFS at 2 years were 90.9% (+/- 8.7) and 81.8% (+/- 11.6)

This results are surprisingly good in patients with osteosarcoma who do not seem to respond well to metronomic chemotherapy.

Free full text can be found as an attached file.