A phase II trial of early intensive chemotherapy with autologous bone marrow transplantation in the treatment of poor prognosis non seminomatous germ cell tumors

Abstract

Twenty-eight patients with poor prognosis, advanced metastatic non seminomatous germ cell tumors (NSGCT) were treated with early high dose chemotherapy and autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) rescue. The primary tumor was testicular in 19 patients and extragonadal in nine patients. For 19 patients with a testicular primary, the median probability of complete remission (CR) was 0.05 according to our prognostic mathematical model based on pretreatment levels of serum HCG and AFP. The same prognostic model was used for extragonadal primaries. Treatment consisted of two cycles of a modified double dose of cisplatin, vinblastine, bleomycin, VP-16 regimen (mPVeBV) followed by a high dose cisplatin-etoposide-cyclophosphamide regimen (PEC) followed by ABMT. Of the 28 patients, 17 (61%) achieved CR, one of which was surgical CR (sCR), five died of rapidly progressive disease early during the first cycle of mPVeBV, two had treatment-related deaths, three did not respond and one patient refused treatment. Of the 17 patients initially in CR, three relapsed after 4, 4 and 7 months respectively and have subsequently died. Two other patients died while still in CR: one committed suicide and one died of an infectious complication due to transfusion-related AIDS. Twelve patients are alive in CR after a median follow-up of 66 months (range 7-72 months). The non parametric 3-year survival rate is 40%. To demonstrate the effect of intensive chemotherapy with ABMT, a randomized multicenter French study was set up to evaluate the PVeBV regimen with or without high dose treatment and ABMT in poor risk NSGCT patients.