Division of Medical Oncology, British Columbia Cancer Agency, University of British Columbia- Vancouver Cancer Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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Because of the small number of relapsed patients, their prognostic variability and the complexity of second-line therapy, randomized studies are largely lacking and treatment recommendations for patients with relapse after first-line chemotherapy are derived from retrospective series or phase II studies. This review summarizes the existing evidence including several recently published larger studies on the use of high-dose chemotherapy in these patients.

Patients with unfavorable features such as incomplete response to first-line therapy, cisplatin refractoriness, multiple relapses or advanced stage at initial diagnosis have been shown to benefit from salvage high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell support. Long-term survival rates of up to 60% have been reported after salvage high-dose chemotherapy for these patients. The treatment for patients relapsing after complete remission to first-line therapy, cisplatin-sensitive disease and gonadal primary remains controversial. Excellent long-term event-free survival rates of up to 80% have been reported after both conventional and high-dose chemotherapy. Surgery remains an important part of any salvage strategy.

The prognosis of patients relapsing after first-line cisplatin-based chemotherapy has improved with multimodality therapy including conventional and high-dose chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. The treatment of these patients requires a close cooperation of experienced medical oncologists, urologists and radiation oncologists.

Written by
Kollmannsberger C, Bokemeyer C.

Reference
Curr Opin Support Palliat Care. 2008 Sep;2(3):167-72.

PubMed Abstract
PMID:18685416

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