Low dose continuous infusion doxorubicin in children and young adults

✍ Scribed by Kynaston, J. Anne ;Pearson, Andrew D. J. ;Kernahan, Jennifer ;Lucraft, Helen ;Barstow, Diane ;Thompson, Anne ;Craft, Alan W.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 431 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0098-1532
• DOI: 10.1002/mpo.2950210707

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Ten patients (age range 3.2–26.3 yrs) with relapsed or resistant malignancies received a total of 20 courses of low dose continuous infusion doxorubicin (3 mg/m^2^/day for 28 days) delivered by portable Graseby infusion pumps via central venous catheters. Each patient received a median dose of 144 mg/m^2^ (range 87–261). Four patients responded to treatment (1 complete response (CR) and 3 partial response (PR)) and performance status improved in seven patients. Overall toxicity was minimal: WHO Grade 4 anaemia in 2/18 courses, Grade 4 neutropenia in 1/18, Grade 3–4 thrombocytopenia in 3/18, nausea and vomiting of Grades 2 and 4 in 4/20 and 1/20 respectively, and mucositis of Grades 2 and 4 in 2/20 courses each. Cardiac toxicity was assessed using echocardi‐ography, and fractional shortening remained within normal limits in all patients. Low dose continuous infusion doxorubicin is a feasible, well tolerated, ambulatory therapy in children and may be an effective way of delivering doxorubicin with less toxicity, thus enabling the development of more dose intensive regimens. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.