Pemetrexed in Treating Patients with Metastatic Bladder Cancer

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> This pooled analysis was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pemetrexed basedchemotherapy in treating patients with metastatic bladder cancer as salvage chemotherapy. <br/><b>Methods</b>: Clinicalstudies evaluating the efficacy and safety of pemetrexed based regimens on response and safety for patients withbladder cancer were identified by using a predefined search strategy. Pooled response rate (RR) of treatmentwere calculated. <br/><b>Results</b>: In pemetrexed based regimens, 3 clinical studies which including 105 patients withadvanced transitional cell cancer of the urothelium were considered eligible for inclusion. Pooled analysissuggested that, in all patients, pooled RR was 26.7% (28/105) for pemetrexed based regimens. Major adverseeffects were neutropenia, anorexia, fatigue, and anemia in pemetrexed based treatment. Two treatment relateddeaths occurred with pemetrexed based treatment. <br/><b>Conclusion</b>: This pooled analysis suggests that pemetrexedbased regimens are associated with mild activity and good tolerability in treating patients with metastatic bladdercancer.