Toremifene Studied as Palliation for Renal Cell Cancer

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia--High doses of the investigational antiestrogentoremifene (Fareston) proved safe and effective as palliative therapy inpatients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, say Dr. Michael Gershanovichand colleagues, of the Professor N. N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology,St. Petersburg, and Orion Corporation, Turku, Finland.

Thirty-six renal cancer patients (19 nephrectomized) were started ontoremi-fene, 300 mg/day. One patient was not evaluable for response becauseof too short treatment time.

The response rate was 17.1%, including one complete remission lasting121+ weeks and five partial remissions with a mean duration of 39.8+ weeks.Ten patients had stable disease for a mean duration of 23.7 weeks (Problemsin Oncology 42[5]:105-109, 1996).

There were no significant differences in response rate between patientswith lung metastases only and those with metastases at other sites withor without lung metastases.

Among those patients who had pain at the beginning of treatment withtoremifene, 45% achieved total pain control and 20% achieved partial paincontrol. Adverse reactions were seen in 10 patients, and led to discontinuationof the drug in one case.