Electrochemotherapy With Reduced-Dose Bleomycin in Elderly Patients With Skin Cancer
Posted: Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Although the standard drug generally used in electrochemotherapy is intravenous bleomycin, a report published in Radiation and Oncology suggested that reduced-dose bleomycin may also be a feasible treatment option for elderly patients with non-melanoma skin cancer of the head and neck. Ales Groselj, MD, PhD, of the University Medical Centre, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and colleagues reported the reduced dose was as effective as the standard dose and should be considered a feasible treatment approach among elderly patients with comorbidities and a short life expectancy.
To evaluate long-term responses to electrochemotherapy in elderly patients with head and neck non-melanoma skin cancer, the research team evaluated 28 patients older than age 65 and a total of 52 non-melanoma skin lesions. The experimental group (n = 12) received a reduced dose of bleomycin, and the control group (n = 16) received the standard dose.
The researchers did not observe any statistically significant differences in tumor control between the two groups. After a median follow-up of 28 months, tumors recurred in 39.0% of treated lesions among patients in the experimental group. In the control group, the tumor recurrence rate of treated lesions was 15.4%, after a median follow-up of 40 months. The deaths that occurred were associated with underlying disease and did not appear to be related to cancer progression or side effects associated with electrochemotherapy.
“In the future, randomized studies with a larger cohort of patients, treated with reduced doses of bleomycin, are needed to evaluate the appropriate indications and clinical significance of de-escalated dose bleomycin in electrochemotherapy treatment,” the researchers concluded.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
