Background
Chemotherapeutic agents such as topotecan can be used to treat ovarian cancer. The effects of using topotecan as a therapeutic agent have not been previously been systematically reviewed.
Objectives
To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of topotecan for the treatment of ovarian cancer.
Results:
Participants were more likely to respond to topotecan on a 21-day cycle
as opposed to
a 42-day cycle (RR 7.23, 95% CI 0.94 to 55.36). Small tumor
diameter, sensitivity to platinum-based chemotherapy was associated
with better prognosis. Small sample size, methodological flaws and
poor reporting of the included trials made measurement
bias of the trials difficult to assess.
Plain language summary
Topotecan is an active second line chemotherapeutic drug, used to treat patients with relapsed ovarian carcinoma
It appears to have a similar level of effectiveness as paclitaxel and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, though with different patterns of side effects. Larger, well-designed randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are required to define an optimal regime.
An ovarian cancer blog which includes quality resource materials: education, research, social networking, genetics and (some) healthcare politics.
“Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.”
Albert Einstein
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments?
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.