Ifosfamide Dose-Intensification Fails to Improve Outcomes for Pediatric Ewing Sarcoma

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to a recent study published in the journal Pediatric Blood and Cancer, researchers from the Department of Pediatrics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York, have found that ifosfamide dose-intensification was well tolerated and did not increase adverse events in pediatric patients with metastatic Ewing sarcoma.

Because outcomes for pediatric patients with metastatic Ewing sarcoma remain poor, researchers sought to investigate whether ifosfamide dose-intensification would improve survival for patients with metastatic Ewing sarcoma.

For the retrospective study, researchers analyzed data from 30 patients with metastatic Ewing sarcoma who were treated with the MSKCC "EFT regimen," which included an intensification of ifosfamide dosing from 1,800mg/m2 per day for 5 days every cycle to 2,800mg/m2 per for 5 days every cycle. Results showed that 26 of the 30 patients completed treatment.

Of those, two patients experienced disease progression during therapy and one developed secondary leukemia. No deaths occurred as a result of treatment toxicity. Researchers found that the 4-year event free survival was 27% and the overall survival was 39%.

The findings suggest that despite being well tolerated, dose intensification of ifosfamide did not improve outcomes for these patients.