The value of high-dose methotrexate-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in malignant fibrous histiocytoma of bone

Purpose: The value of high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX)-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy was evaluated in patients with malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) of bone.

Patients and Methods: Since 1977, MFH of bone was diagnosed in 17 patients (12 males and five females). Ten patients (59%), completed treatment with four courses of neoadjuvant chemotherapy as follows: HD-MTX, vincristine, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, bleomycin, and dactinomycin, or HD-MTX, 4(1)-epidoxorubicin, and carboplatin followed by local tumor resection (n = 3), curettage-cryosurgery (n = 2), amputation (n = 2), or tumor resection-endoprosthetic replacement or allograft (n = 3). After recovery from surgery, an additional six courses of polychemotherapy, including HD-MTX in nine patients, were administered. One patient changed to cisplatin- instead of HD-MTX-containing chemotherapy postoperatively. One additional patient received only adjuvant HD-MTX-containing polychemotherapy. Neoadjuvant MTX-containing chemotherapy was contraindicated in five patients (29%) due to age, cardiac insufficiency, or mental disorder. In one patient, neoadjuvant chemotherapy was cancelled after one course due to renal failure. Treatment consisted of amputation (n = 2), one course of chemotherapy and amputation (n = 1), hyperthermic isolated limb perfusion (HILP; n = 1), intraarterial chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and endoprosthetic replacement (n = 1), and a combination of chemotherapy and radiation treatment (n = 1).

Results: Five of six patients who received no HD-MTX-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy developed metastatic disease (83%); the median time to metastatic disease was 17 months (range, 3 to 44). In contrast, in 10 patients who completed treatment with HD-MTX-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy, with a mean follow-vp time of 9.8 years (range, 2.3 to 15.7) and a median follow-up time of 10.8 years (range, 2.3 to 15.7) after diagnosis, no local recurrence or distant metastases were diagnosed (P <.005).

Conclusion: Neoadjuvant HD-MTX-containing chemotherapy in addition to surgery has dramatically improved the prognosis of patients with MFH of bone. (C) 1996 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.