Effectiveness of capecitabine with or without docetaxel therapy for the treatment of patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma: a single-institution experience

// Cong Xue 1, * , Xin An 1, * , Ye Cao 2 , Tanhuan Chen 1 , Wei Yang 1 , Yingfei Deng 1 , Hui Han 3 , Xiaoyu Teng 1 , Fangjian Zhou 3 , Yanxia Shi 1 1 Department of Medical Oncology, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China 2 Department of GCP, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China 3 Department of Urology, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Yanxia Shi, email: shiyx@sysucc.org.cn Fangjian Zhou, email: zhoufj@sysucc.org.cn Keywords: capecitabine, docetaxel, second-line, chemotherapy, urothelial cancer Received: December 14, 2015      Accepted: July 29, 2016      Published: August 26, 2016 ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and toxicity of capecitabine (C) chemotherapy regimen with or without (w/o) docetaxel (D) in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC). Results: Clinical benefit rate were similar in two arms (C arm vs DC arm: 38.9% vs 45.5%, p = 0.411). There were two cases achieved partial response in DC arm. In C arm, the median PFS was 3.0 months (95% CI 2.5–3.5 months) and median OS was 11.3 months (95% CI 8.6–14.1 months). In DC arm, the median PFS was 2.2 months (95% CI 1.7–2.7 months) and median OS was 18 months (95% CI 6.8–29.9 months). Adverse events were mostly acceptable, including myelosuppession, hand-foot syndrome and mucositis. Anemia and leukopenia was found more in the DC arm than in the C arm. Materials and Methods: This is a one-center, observational, retrospective study. From April 2009 to March 2015, a total of 29 patients with metastatic UC were included in the study. Survivals, response rates and toxicities were collected retrospectively. Conclusions: The result showed the activity and toxicity of C w/o D. As DC treatment did not reveal better outcome, C or D single-agent might be an option in platinum-failed patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma. Further clinical trials are warranted.