Abstract

To determine the activity of combination hormonal therapy for platinum-resistant ovarian carcinoma, we treated 20 patients with leuprolide acetate 7.5 mg intramuscularly once a month and tamoxifen 20 mg orally twice a day. Among the 17 evaluable patients, two patients (12%; 95% CI: 0-27) had a partial response, each lasting 7 months. An additional five patients(29%; 95% CI: 8-51) experienced disease stabilization with a median duration of 5 months. This response rate is not significantly different from previously published studies using either leuprolide acetate or tamoxifen alone. The median survival duration was 14.4 months and this was not significantly different from that of our previous study with high-dose Taxol(P = 0.0668). The treatment was well-tolerated, with minimal toxicity. Combination hormone therapy with leuprolide acetate and tamoxifen does not result in increased activity compared with either drug used alone for platinum-refractory ovarian carcinoma. However, hormonal therapy should remain an important consideration for this disease since it has documented activity with minimal associated toxicity.