A phase II trial of ixabepilone in Asian patients with advanced gastric cancer previously treated with fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy

Purpose The highest rates of gastric cancer occur in Eastern Asia. Fluoropyrimidine-based therapy is used initially in unresectable and metastatic disease, but no single standard of care exists following disease progression. Ixabepilone, an epothilone B analog, is a non-taxane microtubule- stabilizing agent with clinical activity across multiple tumor types approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Methods Asian patients with unresectable or metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma who had failed fluoropyrimidinebased chemotherapy received ixabepilone 40 mg/m² by 3-h intravenous infusion every 3 weeks. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR). Results Fifty-two patients were treated (65.4 % men; median age: 56.5 years). The ORR was 15.4 % (95 % confidence interval [CI] 6.9-28.1); 8 patients achieved partial responses for a median duration of 3.1 months (95 % CI 2.6-4.1 months) and 26 patients (50.0 %) had stable disease. Median progression-free survival was 2.8 months (95 % CI 2.1-3.5 months). The most common grade 3 non-hematological toxicities were fatigue (9.6 %), decreased appetite (7.7 %), sensory neuropathy (5.8 %), and diarrhea (5.8 %). Grade 3/4 neutropenia occurred in 46.2 % of patients. Conclusions Ixabepilone is active in Asian patients with advanced gastric cancer and shows a toxicity profile similar to those previously reported in other tumor types.