Dear Editor,
We were pleased to see that the recent report by Kahl et al.Citation[1] on weekly paclitaxel treatment in relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma confirmed our earlier findingCitation[2] that myelosuppression is minimal with this schedule. While there are some differences between the studies (our patients were limited to aggressive histology and received a slightly lower weekly paclitaxel dose along with estramustine), the results confirm our data that weekly paclitaxel is tolerable and has modest activity in patients with refractory or resistant NHL. While not definitive as there are differences in these small studies and the confidence intervals for response overlap, we did achieve a higher response rate than other paclitaxel trials in lymphoma, suggesting the possibility that estramustine may interact in an additive or synergistic fashion with paclitaxel and perhaps should be pursued further.
References
- Kahl, B S.; Bailey, H H.; Smith, E P.; Turman, N.; Smith, J.; Werndli, J.; Williams, E C.; Longo, W L.; Kim, K M.; McGovern, J.; Jumonville, A. Phase II study of weekly low-dose paclitaxel for relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a Wisconsin Oncology Network Study.Cancer Investig. 2005, 23 (1), 13–18. [CSA]
- Borghaei, H.; Millenson, M.; Schilder, R.; Alden, M.; Rogatko, A.; Wang, H.; Padavic-Shaller, K.; Smith, M R. Phase II study of paclitaxel and estramustine in patients with recurrent and refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma.Cancer 2004, 101 (9), 2034–2041. [PUBMED], [INFOTRIEVE], [CSA], [CROSSREF]