Results of a prospective clinical study of the efficiency and safety of intensive-dose chemotherapy programs for malignancies

The theoretical rationale for intensification of chemotherapy (CT) has become a basis for using of high-dose chemotherapy and for reducing of intervals between courses. At the same time, the toxic effect of cytostatics on bone marrow is one of the most critical deferent to the intensification of CT. The use of dose-intensive regimens, without supporting granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) preparations, inevitably results in the occurrence of severe neuropenia in most patients and the development of serious infectious complications.
This paper presents the results of the prospective clinical study of the safety and efficiency of intensive-dose CT programs for breast cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, conducted at Moscow City Cancer Hospital Sixty-Two in the period of April to November 2007. The study included 56 patients aged 18 to 72 years who received different intensive-dose CT, including 21 patients with breast cancer, 30 with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and 5 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For hemopoietic stimulation, the Russian recombinant G-CSF preparation Leukostim® was subcutaneously injected for all the patients. According to results of this study, intensive-dose CT regimens are effective in treating a number of malignancies and the administration of Leukostim® substantially enhances the accessibility of current treatment for malignancies in a wide circle of Russian patients. The capacities of intensedose CT require meticulous investigation and the method itself deserves further development and Russian oncologists’ scrupulous attention.