Phase II evaluation of dihydroxyanthracenedione (DHAD, NSC 301739) in patients with upper gastrointestinal tumors. A preliminary report

Twenty-nine patients with measurable metastatic upper gastrointestinal cancer received dihydroxyanthracenedione (DHAD, NSC 301739) on a 5-day I.V. schedule administered every 4 weeks. Good-risk patients received DHAD at the starting daily dose of 4 mg/m², while patients who had had therapy with radiation or myelosuppressive drugs such as mitomycin C or a nitrosourea compound received an initial daily dose of 3 mg/m². Most of the patients had disease refractory to 5-Fu-adriamycin-mitomycin-C-containing regimens. Eight of 25 patients evaluable for response had received no prior chemotherapy. There were no complete or partial remissions in this study. Stabilization of disease occurred in six of 14 patients with gastric carcinomas and five of 10 patients with pancreatic carcinomas. The dose-limiting toxic effect was myelosuppression; neutropenia was more severe than thrombocytopenia. The myelosuppression was more severe in patients who had poor bone marrow reserve and liver function impairment. These results suggest that DHAD administered by the 5-day dose schedule as used in this study is not very effective against gastric and pancreatic carcinomas.