Single-drug chemotherapy of bladder cancer with adriamycin, VM-26 or bleomycin. A phase II multicentric, co-operative study

Abstract

Single-drug chemotherapy was employed in a multicentric co-operative trial. Adriamycin was given to 18 patients, VM-26 to 30 and Bleomycin to 33. Almost all patients were suffering from a T3 or T4 bladder cancer with known metastases in almost 40% of cases. The vast majority of patients had already received previous treatment either chemotherapy, surgery of irradiation. Complete regression was obtained in 5% of cases; partial objective regression in 11.1% of patients treated with Adriamycin, 26.6% with VM-26 and 33.3% with Bleomycin. The results were uniformly better when high dosages of drug were employed. No clear-cut superiority of one drug over the others can be demonstrated.