Combination chemotherapy with adramycin (NSC-123127) and dimethyl triazeno imidazole carboxamide (DTIC) (NSC-45388) in children with metastatic solid tumors.

Combination chemotherapy with adriamycin and DTIC was used in 102 evaluable patients under 15 years of age who had previously treated metastatic solid tumors. Responses, defined as 50% or more reduction in all tumor masses, occurred in 10 out of 27 patients with neuroblastoma, 3 out of 8 patients with Wilms tumor, 7 out 15 patients with Ewing sarcoma, 2 out of 6 patients with osteosarcoma, 5 out of 13 patients with rhabdomyosarcoma, and 15 out of 33 patients with miscellaneous tumors which included a patient who had a complete regression of an extensive juvenile angiofibroma. Response rate to combination chemotherapy with adriamycin and DTIC in patients with Ewing sarcoma was significantly superior to the response rate obtained with adriamycin alone in another Southwest Oncology Group Study. Major toxicity included nausea, vomiting, myelosuppression, high incidence of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (5 patients) and congestive heart failure (4 patients). There was 7 drug-associated deaths due to sepsis (1), pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (4), and congestive heart failure (2).