Conditions: Sarcoma, Soft Tissue
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 84
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to explore how a sarcoma is affected by and the side effects of a newer combination of chemotherapy drugs(gemcitabine and docetaxel)as compared to a standard combination of chemotherapy drugs, ifosfamide and doxorubicin.

Detailed description:
The purpose of this study is to explore the relative activity and toxicity of a newer combination of chemotherapy drugs, gemcitabine and docetaxel, as compared to a standard combination of chemotherapy drugs, ifosfamide and doxorubicin.

Ifosfamide and Doxorubicin, given in combination, are recognized as a standard of care for some types of sarcoma. Both gemcitabine and docetaxel are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of some cancers (cancers of the pancreas, lung) because patients with those cancers treated with either gemcitabine or docetaxel experienced shrinkage of their tumor or improvement in their symptoms. However, neither gemcitabine or docetaxel is approved for sarcoma, but the combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel is a standard treatment for advanced sarcoma.

Arms:
arm 1: None arm 2: None

Interventions: intervention 1: ifosfamide and doxorubicin vs gemcitabine and docetaxel
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Arm 1 will consist of the two drug combination of doxorubicin and ifosfamide (with mesna) Treatment will be delivered over 3 days at 21 day intervals. Patients will receive filgrastim days 4-10 or peg-filgrastim on day 4 as a myeloid growth factor.

Arm 2 will consist of the two drug combination of gemcitabine (day 1, 8) and docetaxel (day 8) repeated at 21 day intervals. Patients will receive filgrastim as a myeloid growth factor days 9-15 or peg-filgrastim on day 4.

All patients will receive 4 cycles of chemotherapy unless there is unacceptable toxicity or disease progression that may adversely impact the surgical plan for complete resection.

Protocol document: