Heng-Maillard, Marie-Amélie, Verschuur, Arnauld, Aschero, Audrey, Dabadie, Alexia, Jouve, Elisabeth, Chastagner, Pascal, Leblond, Pierre, Aerts, Isabelle, de Luca, Bénédicte, André, Nicolas, Heng‐maillard, Marie‐amélie, Luca, Bénédicte, Pédiatrie et oncologie pédiatrique [Hôpital de la Timone - APHM], Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Marseille (APHM)- Hôpital de la Timone [CHU - APHM] (TIMONE), Centre d'Investigation Clinique [Hôpital de la Conception - APHM] (CIC), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Marseille (APHM)-Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Fédération nationale des Centres de lutte contre le Cancer (FNCLCC)-Fédération nationale des Centres de lutte contre le Cancer (FNCLCC)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Hôpital de la Conception [CHU - APHM] (LA CONCEPTION), Service d'Oncologie Pédiatrique [CHRU Nancy], Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Nancy (CHRU Nancy), Centre Régional de Lutte contre le Cancer Oscar Lambret [Lille] (UNICANCER/Lille), Université de Lille-UNICANCER, Institut Curie [Paris], Aix-Marseille Université - Faculté de pharmacie (AMU PHARM), Aix Marseille Université (AMU), Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Marseille (CRCM), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Fédération nationale des Centres de lutte contre le Cancer (FNCLCC)-Fédération nationale des Centres de lutte contre le Cancer (FNCLCC)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Université Lille Nord de France (COMUE)-UNICANCER
Objective To investigate the antitumor activity of a four-drug metronomic chemotherapy (MC) regimen in relapsed/progressing pediatric extracranial solid tumors (EST). The primary objective was clinical benefit (complete response /partial response/stable disease [SD]) after two cycles of therapy (four months). Methods Patients aged ≥4 to 25 years with progressing EST and adequate organ function were eligible. Treatment consisted of an eight-week cycle of oral celecoxib b.i.d., weekly vinblastine, and oral cyclophosphamide for three weeks alternating with oral methotrexate for three weeks, with a two-week rest. The Kepner-Chang two-stage model was used with 10 patients in the first stage. If primary objective was reached in two or more patients, eight additional patients were included according to four groups: neuroblastoma (NBL), soft-tissue sarcoma (STS), bone sarcoma (BS), and miscellaneous (Misc.). Results Forty-four patients were evaluable. The NBL cohort could be expanded to 18 patients: 4 of 18 patients stabilized with MC treatment for 6 (n = 1) and 12 (n = 3) months. In STS, two of seven patients (metastatic hemangioendothelioma and angiosarcoma) had SD for > 2 cycles. One of nine Misc. (metastatic myoepithelial carcinoma) had SD for one year. All patients with BS had progressive disease. One-year progression-free survival of the whole cohort was 6.8% and one-year overall survival was 55.3%. Grade 3 toxicity occurred in 18 patients and grade 4 in 15 patients. The most frequent toxicity was hematologic, predominantly neutropenia. Conclusions This MC has no activity in BS and limited though interesting activity in NBL with some patients being stable for > 1 year. It is not possible to conclude activity in STS and Misc.