Objectives Endometrial carcinosarcomas (EC) are rare metaplastic tumors with dual composition of mesenchymal and epithelial elements, seen as a good example of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The current study evaluated the efficacy and safety of Carbotaxol (CT) as adjuvant and first-line (1L) palliative treatment for women with carcinosarcoma.

Methods This retrospective cohort of patients (pts) with EC treated with 3qw Carbotaxol at INCA between January 2012 and January 2017 assessed overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), progression-free survival (PFS), response rate (RR), and tolerability. All analyses were performed with the SPSS software, version 18.0.

Results A total of 48 pts were enrolled, median age 66.1 years, mostly with stage III disease (43.8%). The median OS for all pts was 21.5 m. For stage IV, OS was 11.1 m. The median DFS for pts treated with adjuvant CT was 20.5 m. For the 21 stage IV pts treated with 1L CT, the median PFS was 6.9 m and median OS was 12.3 m; partial response occured in 9.5%, stable disease in 28.6% and disease progression in 57.1%. The main side effects were asthenia, alopecia, vomiting and myelotoxicity.

Conclusions The combination of carboplatin and paclitaxel has been shown to be effective and safe for the treatment of EC. Staging was confirmed as a strong prognostic factor. The adverse events were manageable and there were no chemo-related deaths. The results were quite similar to those previously reported by multicenter studies.