Holcombe E. Grier

Osteosarcoma: A Randomized, Prospective Trial of the Addition of Ifosfamide and/or Muramyl Tripeptide to Cisplatin, Doxorubicin, and High-Dose Methotrexate

PURPOSE To determine whether the addition of ifosfamide and/or muramyl tripeptide (MTP) encapsulated in liposomes to cisplatin, doxorubicin, and high-dose methotrexate (HDMTX) could improve the probability for event-free survival (EFS) in newly diagnosed patients with osteosarcoma (OS). PATIENTS AND METHODS Six hundred seventy-seven patients with OS without clinically detectable metastatic disease were treated with one of four prospectively randomized treatments. All patients received identical cumulative doses of cisplatin, doxorubicin, and HDMTX and underwent definitive surgical resection of the primary tumor. Patients were randomly assigned to receive or not to receive ifosfamide and/or MTP in a 2 double dagger 2 factorial design. The primary end point for analysis was EFS. RESULTS Patients treated with the standard arm of therapy had a 3-year EFS of 71%. We could not analyze the results by factorial design because we observed an interaction between the addition of ifosfamide and the addition of MTP. The addition of MTP to standard chemotherapy achieved a 3-year EFS rate of 68%. The addition of ifosfamide to standard chemotherapy achieved a 3-year EFS rate of 61%. The addition of both ifosfamide and MTP resulted in a 3-year EFS rate of 78%. CONCLUSION The addition of ifosfamide in this dose schedule to standard chemotherapy did not enhance EFS. The addition of MTP to chemotherapy might improve EFS, but additional clinical and laboratory investigation will be necessary to explain the interaction between ifosfamide and MTP.

Osteosarcoma: The Addition of Muramyl Tripeptide to Chemotherapy Improves Overall Survival—A Report From the Children's Oncology Group

PURPOSE To compare three-drug chemotherapy with cisplatin, doxorubicin, and methotrexate with four-drug chemotherapy with cisplatin, doxorubicin, methotrexate, and ifosfamide for the treatment of osteosarcoma. To determine whether the addition of muramyl tripeptide (MTP) to chemotherapy enhances event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival in newly diagnosed patients with osteosarcoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS Six hundred sixty-two patients with osteosarcoma without clinically detectable metastatic disease and whose disease was considered resectable received one of four prospectively randomized treatments. All patients received identical cumulative doses of cisplatin, doxorubicin, and methotrexate and underwent definitive surgical resection of primary tumor. Patients were randomly assigned to receive or not to receive ifosfamide and/or MTP in a 2 x 2 factorial design. The primary end points for analysis were EFS and overall survival. RESULTS In the current analysis, there was no evidence of interaction, and we were able to examine each intervention separately. The chemotherapy regimens resulted in similar EFS and overall survival. There was a trend toward better EFS with the addition of MTP (P = .08). The addition of MTP to chemotherapy improved 6-year overall survival from 70% to 78% (P = .03). The hazard ratio for overall survival with the addition of MTP was 0.71 (95% CI, 0.52 to 0.96). CONCLUSION The addition of ifosfamide to cisplatin, doxorubicin, and methotrexate did not enhance EFS or overall survival for patients with osteosarcoma. The addition of MTP to chemotherapy resulted in a statistically significant improvement in overall survival and a trend toward better EFS.

Congenital Mesoblastic Nephroma t(12;15) Is Associated with ETV6-NTRK3 Gene Fusion Cytogenetic and Molecular Relationship to Congenital (Infantile) Fibrosarcoma

Morphological, cytogenetic, and biological evidence supports a relationship between congenital (infantile) fibrosarcoma (CFS) and congenital mesoblastic nephroma (CMN). These tumors have a very similar histological appearance, and they are both associated with polysomies for chromosomes 8, 11, 17, and 20. Recently, CFS was shown to contain a novel t(12; 15)(p13;q25) translocation resulting in ETV6-NTRK3 gene fusion. The aims of this study were to determine whether congenital mesoblastic nephroma contains the t(12;15)(p13;q25) translocation and ETV6-NTRK3 gene fusion and whether ETV6-NTRK3 fusions, in CMN and CFS, antedate acquisition of nonrandom chromosome polysomies. To address these aims, we evaluated 1) ETV6-NTRK3 fusion transcripts by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and sequence analysis, 2) genomic ETV6-region chromosomal rearrangement by fluorescence in situ hybridization, and 3) chromosomal polysomies by karyotyping and fluorescence in situ hybridization. We report ETV6-NTRK3 fusion transcripts and/or ETV6-region rearrangement in five of six CMNs and in five of five CFSs. The ETV6-NTRK3 fusion transcripts and/or ETV-region chromosome rearrangements were demonstrated in two CMNs and one CFS that lacked chromosome polysomies. These findings demonstrate that t(12;15) translocation, and the associated ETV6-NTRK3 fusion, can antedate acquisition of chromosome polysomies in CMN and CFS. CMN and CFS are pathogenetically related, and it is likely that they represent a single neoplastic entity, arising in either renal or soft tissue locations.

Randomized Controlled Trial of Interval-Compressed Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Localized Ewing Sarcoma: A Report From the Children's Oncology Group

PURPOSE Chemotherapy with alternating vincristine-doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide-etoposide cycles and primary tumor treatment with surgery and/or radiation therapy constitute the usual approach to localized Ewing sarcoma in North America. We tested whether chemotherapy intensification through interval compression could improve outcome. PATIENTS AND METHODS This was a prospective, randomized controlled trial for patients younger than 50 years old with newly diagnosed localized extradural Ewing sarcoma. Patients assigned to standard and intensified treatment were to begin chemotherapy cycles every 21 and 14 days, respectively, provided an absolute neutrophil count greater than 750×10(6)/L and a platelet count greater than 75×10(9)/L. Patients received vincristine (2 mg/m2), doxorubicin (75 mg/m2), and cyclophosphamide (1.2 g/m2) alternating with ifosfamide (9 g/m2) and etoposide (500 mg/m2) for 14 cycles, with filgrastim (5 mg/kg per day; maximum, 300 mg) between cycles. Primary tumor treatment (surgery, radiation, or both) was to begin at week 13 (after four cycles in the standard arm and six cycles in the intensified arm). The primary end point was event-free survival (EFS). The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT00006734). RESULTS Five hundred eighty-seven patients were enrolled and randomly assigned, and 568 patients were eligible, with 284 patients in each regimen. For all cycles, the median cycle interval for standard treatment was 21 days (mean, 22.45 days); for intensified treatment, the median interval was 15 days (mean, 17.29 days). EFS at a median of 5 years was 65% in the standard arm and 73% in the intensified arm (P=.048). The toxicity of the regimens was similar. CONCLUSION For localized Ewing sarcoma, chemotherapy administered every 2 weeks is more effective than chemotherapy administered every 3 weeks, with no increase in toxicity.

Presurgical Chemotherapy Compared With Immediate Surgery and Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Nonmetastatic Osteosarcoma: Pediatric Oncology Group Study POG-8651

PURPOSE Successful therapeutic interventions to prevent disease progression in patients with nonmetastatic osteosarcoma have included surgery with adjuvant chemotherapy. Presurgical chemotherapy has been advocated for these patients because of putative improvement in event-free survival (EFS). The advantages of presurgical chemotherapy include early administration of systemic chemotherapy, shrinkage of primary tumor, and pathologic identification of risk groups. The theoretic disadvantage is that it exposes a large tumor burden to marginally effective chemotherapy. The contribution of chemotherapy and surgery timing has not been tested rigorously. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between 1986 and 1993, we conducted a prospective trial in patients with nonmetastatic osteosarcoma who were assigned randomly to immediate surgery or presurgical chemotherapy. Except for the timing of surgery (week 0 or 10), patients received 44 weeks of identical combination chemotherapy that included high-dose methotrexate with leucovorin rescue, doxorubicin, cisplatin, bleomycin, cyclophosphamide, and dactinomycin. RESULTS One hundred six patients were enrolled onto this study. Six were excluded from analysis. Of the remaining 100 patients, 45 were randomly assigned to immediate chemotherapy, and 55 were randomly assigned to immediate surgery. Sixty-seven patients remain disease-free. At 5 years, the projected EFS +/- SE is 65% +/- 6% (69% +/- 8% for immediate surgery and 61% +/- 8% for presurgical chemotherapy; P =.8). The treatment arms had similar incidence of limb salvage (55% for immediate surgery and 50% for presurgical chemotherapy). CONCLUSION Chemotherapy was effective in both treatment groups. There was no advantage in EFS for patients given presurgical chemotherapy.

Response to ifosfamide and mesna: 124 previously treated patients with metastatic or unresectable sarcoma.

European and American investigators have reported response rates of 38% to 83% for ifosfamide alone in pretreated sarcomas. In a phase II trial of ifosfamide 2.0g/m2 days 1 to 4 with mesna uroprotection in 124 patients with previously failed sarcomas, four (3%) responded completely (95% exact confidence interval, 1% to 8%) and 26 (21%) had a complete or partial response (95% exact confidence interval, 14% to 29%). The median time to progression was 5 and 9 months for partial and complete responders, respectively. In the subset of soft tissue sarcomas, the response rate for the patients receiving bolus administration was 26%, compared with 9% for the patients receiving a continuous infusion schedule (P = .03). The response rates among patients with soft tissue and bony sarcomas with a performance score of 0-2 and 0-1 prior to chemotherapy administration were 20% and 40%, respectively. Somnolence or confusion developed in 19%. Neurotoxicity was significantly associated with poor performance status (P less than .01), elevated creatinine (P less than .01), and low bicarbonate levels (P = .05). A serum bicarbonate less than 20 developed in 31% of the patients and was significantly associated with older age (P = .01), elevated creatinine (P = .02), and female sex (P = .06). Hematuria was significantly associated with no uroprotection (the first four patients did not receive mesna because it was unavailable), but was not associated with prior cyclophosphamide, pelvic radiotherapy, age, or bolus v continuation infusion schedule. Thus, ifosfamide is active in failed sarcomas and warrants further study in previously untreated patients with sarcoma.

Dose-Intensified Compared With Standard Chemotherapy for Nonmetastatic Ewing Sarcoma Family of Tumors: A Children's Oncology Group Study

PURPOSE The Ewing sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) is a group of malignant tumors of soft tissue and bone sharing a chromosomal translocation affecting the EWS locus. The Intergroup INT-0091 demonstrated the superiority of a regimen of vincristine, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin (VDC), and dactinomycin alternating with ifosfamide and etoposide (IE) over VDC for patients with nonmetastatic ESFT of bone. The goal of this study was to determine whether a dose-intensified regimen of VDC alternating with IE would further improve the outcome for patients with nonmetastatic ESFT of bone or soft tissue. METHODS Patients with previously untreated, nonmetastatic ESFT of bone or soft tissue were eligible. They were randomly assigned to receive standard doses of VDC/IE over 48 weeks or a dose-intensified regimen of VDC/IE over 30 weeks. RESULTS Four hundred seventy-eight patients met eligibility requirements: 231 patients received the standard regimen; 247 patients received the intensified regimen. The 5-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival rates for all eligible patients were 71.1% (95% CI, 67.7% to 75.0%) and 78.6% (95% CI, 74.6% to 82.1%), respectively. There was no significant difference (P = .57) in EFS between patients treated with the standard (5-year EFS, 72.1%; 95% CI, 65.8% to 77.5%) or intensified regimen (5-year EFS, 70.1%; 63.9% to 75%). Patients with soft tissue tumors accounted for 20% of the study population; there was no difference in outcome between patients with soft tissue and bone primary sites. CONCLUSION Dose escalation of alkylating agents as tested in this trial did not improve the outcome for patients with nonmetastatic ESFT of bone or soft tissue.

Easing of Suffering in Children With Cancer at the End of Life : Is Care Changing?

PURPOSE In the past decade studies have documented substantial suffering among children dying of cancer, prompting national attention on the quality of end-of-life care and the development of a palliative care service in our institutions. We sought to determine whether national and local efforts have led to changes in patterns of care, advanced care planning, and symptom control among children with cancer at the end of life. METHODS Retrospective cohort study from a US tertiary level pediatric institution. Parent survey and chart review data from 119 children who died between 1997 and 2004 (follow-up cohort) were compared with 102 children who died between 1990 and 1997 (baseline cohort). RESULTS In the follow-up cohort, hospice discussions occurred more often (76% v 54%; adjusted risk difference [RD], 22%; P < .001) and earlier (adjusted geometric mean 52 days v 28 days before death; P = .002) compared with the baseline cohort. Do-not-resuscitate orders were also documented earlier (18 v 12 days; P = .031). Deaths in the intensive care unit or other hospitals decreased significantly (RD, 16%; P = .024). Parents reported less child suffering from pain (RD, 19%; P = .018) and dyspnea (RD, 21%; P = .020). A larger proportion of parents felt more prepared during the childs last month of life (RD, 29%; P < .001) and at the time of death (RD, 24%; P = .002). CONCLUSION Children dying of cancer are currently receiving care that is more consistent with optimal palliative care and according to parents, are experiencing less suffering. With ongoing growth of the field of hospice and palliative medicine, further advancements are likely.

Phase II/III Trial of Etoposide and High-Dose Ifosfamide in Newly Diagnosed Metastatic Osteosarcoma: A Pediatric Oncology Group Trial

PURPOSE The objectives of this trial were to estimate the response rate, progression-free survival, and overall survival of patients who received therapy with etoposide and high-dose ifosfamide, and to define the toxicity of this combination when provided with standard chemotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic osteosarcoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eligible patients received infusions of 100 mg/m(2) per day of etoposide and 3.5 g/m(2) per day of ifosfamide for 5 days. Therapy with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor was begun on day 6. This was repeated 3 weeks after therapy was begun. Response was determined at week 6 by both standard World Health Organization response criteria and by pathologic determination of tumor necrosis of the primary tumor. RESULTS Forty-three patients were registered; 39 were assessable for response and 41 for toxicity and survival. Twenty-eight (68%) of 41 had metastatic sites only in the lung; 12 (29%) had metastatic sites in other bones with or without lung involvement. Four patients (10%) experienced complete response, and 19 patients (49%) experienced partial response, for an overall response rate of 59% +/- 8%. The projected 2-year progression-free survival (PFS) for the 28 patients with metastases to lungs was 39% +/- 11%. The projected 2-year PFS for the 12 patients with metastases to other bones (with or without pulmonary metastases) was 58% +/- 17%. Two patients died as a result of therapy toxicity. Eighty-three percent of patients had grade 4 neutropenia, and 29% had grade 4 thrombocytopenia. Ten patients (24%) had sepsis. Fanconis syndrome was observed in five patients. CONCLUSION The combination of etoposide and high-dose ifosfamide is effective induction chemotherapy for patients with metastatic osteosarcoma, despite significant associated myelosuppression sometimes complicated by infection and renal toxicity.

Ewing's sarcoma—Routine diagnostic utilization of MIC2 analysis: A pediatric oncology group/children's cancer group intergroup study

Ewings sarcoma and peripheral neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) are small blue cell tumors with no reliable positive diagnostic markers. However, Ewings sarcoma and PNET recently have been shown to strongly express an antigen determined by the MIC2 gene, whereas other blue cell tumors of childhood for the most part do not. MIC2 analysis therefore offers a distinctive addition to the panel of immunohistochemical stains used to differentiate among small blue cell tumors of childhood, since it represents the first positive marker for Ewings sarcoma and PNET. This study addresses the reliability of MIC2 analysis using the monoclonal antibody 12E7 on tumors registered in the current Intergroup Ewings Sarcoma protocol. Of 244 tumors, 221 (91%) showed a diffuse strong membranous pattern. The antibody appears to withstand all the fixation variables inherent in a multi-institutional study. We conclude that MIC2 expression is highly reliable as a positive marker for the Ewings sarcoma/PNET family of tumors when the results are interpreted in the total context with clinical and pathologic parameters.