5563
Background: Patients with ovarian cancer that relapse or recur within 6 months after platinum plus taxane therapy have a poor prognosis. Patupilone, a natural epothilone isolated from myxobacterium, is a microtubule targeting agent that was found to be safe and well tolerated, with clinical activity in refractory or resistant ovarian cancer. Methods: Patients were treated with a dose of patupilone 10 mg/m
2
, given intravenously over 10–20 minutes once every 3 weeks, which was found safe in a previous phase I study. Results: Total 113 women enrolled and 112 were treated. The median age was 56 years (range 18–85 years), and 11 % had WHO Performance Status (PS) of 2. Most patients (104) had ovarian cancer, while 5 were peritoneal and 2 each of fallopian or other origin. All patients had received prior platinum and taxane, and 50% had progressed in less than 3 months after prior platinum therapy. Patients received a median of 4 cycles (range 1–16) of patupilone with median average dose per cycle of 9.97 mg/m
2
, resulting in a median dose intensity of 100%. The most common grade 3/4 toxicity was diarrhea (21%/3%), fatigue (10%/1%), intestinal obstruction (5%/3%), anorexia (5%/1%), and vomiting (8%/0%). About 38% patients developed neuropathy, which was mostly grade 1 (in 22%), with only 4% patients at grade 3. A total of 6 patients (5.4%) discontinued due to serious adverse event. There were 4 (3.6%) deaths on study, none of which were considered treatment related. The best overall response rate (by RECIST criteria) was 7.1% (95% CI: 3.0%, 14.0%) with no patient having complete response and 8 patients with partial response. Also, 46 patients (41%) had stable disease and 39 (34.8%) progressed, while response was unknown or could not be evaluated in 19 patients. The median PFS is 2.5 months (95% CI: 1.4, 3.5), and median overall survival is 11.2 months (95% CI: 8.3, 14.9), with 33% patients censored. Conclusions: Patupilone 10mg/m
2
administered at q3wk was safe and well tolerated. It showed promising activity in patients with refractory/resistant ovarian cancer.
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