Abstract

A series of 31 patients with advanced urothelial cancer were treated with combination chemotherapy consisting of 1-4 cycles of methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin (M-VAC). Of the 31 patients, 29 had measurable and evaluable lesions. A complete remission was achieved by 4 of these 29 patients (14%) for 1-46 months. A partial remission was observed in 14 of the 29 patients (48%) for 1-9 months. Whereas bony and hepatic metastatic lesions did not respond, some nodal (7/12), pulmonary (4/8), and pelvic lesions (2/3) as well as primary bladder tumors (4/6) and a tumor marker (1/2) responded. Complete tumor remission was observed in nodal (2/12) and pulmonary (1/8) metastatic lesions, in invasive lesions to the prostate and seminal vesicle (1/1), and in primary lesions in the bladder (2/6), ureter (1/1), and urethra (1/1). Two of three patients with non-transitional cell tumors attained a partial remission for 1-7 months. Complete remission of the pulmonary lesions was obtained in a case of squamous cell cancer of the bladder with pulmonary metastases. The toxicity of this regimen was generally tolerable and included moderate to severe myelosuppression, mild to moderate nausea and vomiting, renal toxicity, and mucositis. These results suggest that the M-VAC regimen holds promise for the treatment of advanced metastatic transitional cell cancer as well as non-transitional cell cancer of the urothelium.