Phase II study of biweekly dose-intense docetaxel plus gemcitabine (GEM/DOC) in patients with recurrent locoregional or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
Authors: Ammar Sukari, Zyad Kafri, Lance K. Heilbrun, George H. Yoo, Heather a Mulrenan, Daryn Smith, Harold Kim, John Robert Jacobs, Omer Kucuk, Mohamed E. Salem
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2012)

5534 Notice of Retraction: "Phase II study of biweekly dose-intense docetaxel plus gemcitabine (GEM/DOC) in patients with recurrent locoregional or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma." ASCO's Confidentiality Policy requires that abstracts be considered confidential and embargoed from the time of submission until the findings have been publicly released in conjunction with the ASCO Annual Meeting. Abstract 5534, published in the 2012 Annual Meeting Proceedings Part I, a supplement to the Journal of Clinical Oncology, violated this policy and has been retracted from publication and presentation at the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting. Background: Patients with metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have a poor prognosis, limited treatment options, and median survival of 6 to 9 months. Docetaxel and gemcitabine have both shown activity in HNSCC. The optimal combination, dosing, and scheduling of both drugs is, however, unknown. Thus, we investigated the efficacy and safety of biweekly dose intense GEM/DOC in patients with recurrent locoregional or metastatic HNSCC. Methods: An open-label, single-institution, single-arm, phase II study was conducted for patients who were previously treated with no more than two cytotoxic regimens. The patients received docetaxel (60 mg/m 2 IV) and gemcitabine (3000 mg/m 2 IV) on day 1. The treatments were repeated every 14 days (one cycle), until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary end point was response rate. RECIST-defined response was evaluated every 4 cycles and toxicities were evaluated at each cycle. Results: A total of 36 patients were enrolled (M:F 26:10; median age (range), 60 years (46-79); performance status 0-1) , 29 of whom were response-evaluable. The patients received a median of 4 cycles (range 0-24). Of these 29 patients, none achieved complete response (CR) and 6 demonstrated a partial response (PR). Thus, the overall response rate was 21% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.10 – 0.38). Ten patients had stable disease (SD), resulting in tumor control (CR or PR or SD) in 16 of 29 patients (55%), whereas 13 patients (45%) had disease progression. The median response duration was 3.2 months (80% CI: 2.0 – 6.1 months). For all 36 patients, the median overall survival was 4.2 months (95% CI: 2.4 – 7.0 months). Myelosuppression was the most common adverse event. Grade 3-4 neutropenia and anemia were observed in 10 (30%) and 13 (39%) patients, respectively. None of these patients, however, had febrile neutropenia or bleeding events, and there were no treatment-related deaths. Conclusions: The combination of biweekly dose intense GEM/DOC was tolerable and active regimen in patients with recurrent locoregional or metastatic HNSCC. Our findings warrant further investigation in a larger patient population.