[Chemotherapy with high dose of anthracyclines combined with cisplatin in the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas].

In the Institute of Oncology and Radiology in Belgrade 45 patients were treated with combined chemotherapy of Doxorubicin 75 mg/m2 and Cisplatin 120 mg/m2 per cycle, and 35 patients with Epirubicin substituting Doxorubicin; this second group received Epirubicin 180 mg/m2 and Cisplatin 120 mg/m2 per cycle. All patients were chemotherapy naive. The group receiving Doxorubicin recruited prognostically better patients with ECOG performance status 0 - 2 and median age of 41 years; the group receiving Epirubicin recruited patients with a larger ECOG performance score (0 - 3), and the median age was 48 years. All histological types of soft tissue sarcoma were equally represented in both groups. In the group receiving Doxorubicin 4/45 patients achieved complete response, the overall response rate was 18/45 and 18/45 patients had progressive disease. In the group receiving Epirubicin 10/35 patients achieved complete response, the overall response rate was 20/35 and only 6/35 patients had progressive disease. Although the response rate in the Doxorubicin group was unrealistically high due to recruitment of patients with relatively good prognostic parameters, the complete response rate in the Epirubicin group was found to be significantly higher in comparison to the Doxorubicin group. A significantly higher percentage in the Doxorubicin group was found to exhibit progressive disease despite treatment. The most significant toxicity in both groups was haematological, grade IV toxicity occurring slightly more frequently in the Epirubicin group (but in fact there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups).