Comparison of the treatment results after conventional and myeloablative chemotherapy in patients with poor prognosis Ewing's sarcoma family tumors - single center experience

Abstract

Purpose: To compare the survival of patients with poor prognosis Ewing's sarcoma family tumors (EFT) after conventional and myeloablative chemotherapy treated at our hospital in a period of 25 years.

Methods: Fifty-seven patients were treated between 1985 and 2010. The patients were separated into 3 groups. Group A included patients (n=20) treated with conventional chemotherapy between 1985 and 1997. Group B patients (n=22) were treated with conventional chemotherapy protocols between 1997 and 2010; and group C patients (n=15) were treated in the same period of time with conventional chemotherapy and subsequent myeloablative chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).

Results: In group A patients the 5-year overall survival (OS) was 25% and the disease-free survival (DFS) 15%; in group B patients they were 27.27% and 18.8% (p=0.31) and in group C patients 33.3% and 20% (p=0.58), respectively.

Conclusion: More intensive chemotherapy, including myeloablative chemotherapy plus HSCT, is a curative option for patients with poor-prognosis EFT, but the survival still remains unsatisfactory.