Carboplatin clinical administration

Early clinical studies clearly demonstrated that cisplatin could be administered safely and concurrently with radiation therapy (73-75). Early clinical trials that demonstrated the promise of the combination of cisplatin and radiation therapy included the treatment of brain tumors (76,77), head and neck tumors (78), malignant melanoma (79), and bladder cancer (80). Early clinical trial integrating carboplatin administration with radiation therapy was carried out in patients with locally advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (81). A hypothesis put forth by Coughlin and colleagues (81) was that the best clinical outcomes would be achieved with the combination of cisplatin and radiation therapy in tumors that were responsive to cisplatin. 

Combination chemotherapy is the standard approach to stage III and stage IV disease. Randomized clinical studies have shown that the combination of paclitaxel and cisplatin provides survival benefit compared with the previous standard combination of cisplatin plus cyclophosphamide. More recently, several studies have shown that carboplatin and paclitaxel yields clinical results similar to what is achieved with the cisplatin plus paclitaxel combination however, because of reduced toxicity and greater ease of administration, carboplatin plus paclitaxel has now become the treatment of choice. In patients who present with recurrent disease, the topoisomerase I inhibitor topotecan, the alkylating agent altretamine, and liposomal doxorubicin are used as single agent monotherapy. 

Experience with ifosfamide-contain-ing regimens has revealed a consistent clinical pattern of nephrotoxicity. Fanco-ni syndrome, which is characterized by acid, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and small molecular weight proteins, occurs in 1-5% of the children who have received repeated treatments of ifosfamide [94] [95]. In fact the development of rickets secondary to Fanconi syndrome has been reported following treatment with ifosfamide [96]. Patients who have received therapy with cisplatin or carboplatin in addition to ifosfamide may be at greater risk for development of Fanconi syndrome [97]. Hemorrhagic cystitis is a significant toxicity that occurs with ifosfamide administration [98,... 

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