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Survival of patients treated with chemotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer usually does not exceed 1 year. Randomized trials have shown a potential modest survival benefit from second-line chemotherapy with taxanes or irinotecan. Now, investigators report the results of two studies in this setting that compared docetaxel versus best supportive care and irinotecan versus paclitaxel.
Ford and colleagues conducted a phase III, multicenter, randomized, open-label (COUGAR-02) trial of second-line docetaxel (75 mg/m2 once every 3 weeks) plus supportive care versus supportive care alone. The study involved 168 patients in the U.K. with metastatic esophagogastric cancer that progressed during chemotherapy (43%) or within 3 months (32%) or 6 months…