Comparison of the effectiveness of liposomal doxorubicin and gemcitabine in patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer receiving third-line chemotherapy

E. Bayram, G. Khatib, U. Kuçukgoz-Gulec, A.B. Guzel, M.A. Vardar, S. Paydas

Department of Medical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. ertugrulbayram84@gmail.com

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• Oncology

OBJECTIVE: In this retrospective study, we compared the effectiveness and reliability of the third-line chemotherapies gemcitabine and liposomal doxorubicin, in patients with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer (OC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The retrospective study included platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer patients who had previously received paclitaxel and carboplatin therapy. Between 2013-2021, cross-matched 45 patients who received gemcitabine and 48 who received liposomal doxorubicin as third-line therapy were compared based on clinicopathological characteristics, biomarkers, and blood cancer antigen (CA) 125 levels. Time to treatment failure, survival, and quality of life were additional objectives.

RESULTS: The study included a total of 93 patients. The reported mean survival durations for treatments, 19.45 months for gemcitabine and 17 months for liposomal doxorubicin, did not statistically significantly differ (p=0.398). The mean CA 125 levels for the liposomal doxorubicin and gemcitabine groups after treatment were 54.4±11.4 U/ml and 54.7±11.1 U/ml, respectively. There was no noticeable difference between the treatments when comparing the postop CA 125 value (p=0.37).

CONCLUSIONS: For both pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) and gemcitabine as single agents in the third line, our data revealed comparable effectiveness results, and there was no substantial difference in progression-free survival (PFS) for recurrent ovarian cancer. These therapies were tolerated with an expected incidence of hematological toxicities.

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