[Low dose COMPE. Cisplatin, vincristine, methotrexate, peplomycin, etoposide chemotherapy for advanced testicular cancer].

We presented 15 patients with advanced testicular cancer treated with to 7 courses (mean: 3.2 courses) of COMPE chemotherapy. The low dose COMPE, given 14 patients, consisted of the chemotherapeutic agents as follows: cisplatin, 5 mg/m2 by intravenous push infusion and thereafter 25 mg/m2 by continuous 24-hour-infusion on day 3 and 30 mg/m2 by continuous 24-hour-infusion on day 4; vincristine, 0.6 mg/m2 by drip intravenous infusion (div) on days 1 and 2; methotrexate, 10 mg/m2 by div on day 1; peplomycin, 10 mg/m2/day, divided to three times by intramuscular injection on days 1 to 3; etoposide, 100 mg/m2, by div on days 3 to 5. The regular dose COMPE (given one patient) had CDDP dosage up to 50 mg/m2/day on days 3 and 4. the regimens were given every 3 or 4 weeks in admission. Patients were adequately hydrated but no diuretics were used. The patients were diagnosed as 5 seminomas with 4IIA and one IIB and as 10 non-seminomas with 2IIA, one IIB, one IIIB 1,4 IIIB2, and 2 IIIC stagings, respectively. Of the 15 patients, 12 patients are alive with no evidence of disease at 13-86 months (mean: 39.5 months) of follow-up duration. Six patients achieved complete remission. Of 8 patients achieved partial remission with chemotherapy alone, 6 patients achieved complete remission by following resection of residual masses or irradiation but another 2 patients (IIB2:1, IIIC:1) failed to achieve complete remission had relapse and died after 19 and 25 months, respectively. One patient (IIIC) showed no change had progression and died after 5 months.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)