Background: The purpose of the study was to evaluate first-line platinum/paclitaxel (Taxol) under phase III trial conditions in ovarian cancer (OC) patients aged ‡70 years. Results: One hundred and three (13%) patients were aged ‡70 years. Patient characteristics (<70 versus ‡70 years) showed significant differences with regard to Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, residual disease and constitutional factors but not to FIGO stage, histology or grading. Elderly patients received 98%, 100% and 96% of the recommended paclitaxel, carboplatin and cisplatin dose, respectively, per cycle. Early discontinuation was more frequent in elderly, although QoL, nonhematological and hematological toxicity were comparable between elderly and younger patients, except for febrile neutropenia (5% versus <1%, P = 0.005). There were no significant differences with regard to cycle delays, dose reductions or the use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and antibiotics.Conclusion: Platinum/paclitaxel appeared to be feasible and tolerable in elderly patients under clinical trial conditions, but there seems to be a different investigators' estimation of toxicity and less intention to maintain trial treatment in elderly.

Loss of the Y chromosome is a rare event in prostate cancer. Y losses occur in much higher rates in most other cancer types. For this reason, we suggest that the expression of at least one Y chromosome gene is essential for prostate epithelial cells and it is possible that such a gene could represent a suitable target for future therapy of prostate cancer.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is associated with the highest cancer-related mortality among gynecological cancers, since nearly 2/3 of patients are diagnosed with advanced stage disease which is caused by an unspecific clinical appearance and the lack of effective early detection methods. So far only histopathological and clinical prognostic factors have clinical relevance from which FIGO-stage and the postoperative residual disease have predominant importance. Early stage OC (FIGO Ia-II) has a good prognosis with survival rates of approximately 90%, provided that the tumor is macroscopically resected and an adequate surgical staging has been performed. Additionally early stage OC patients should receive an adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy. In advanced stage OC (FIGO IIb-IV) the aim of primary surgery is a maximum cytoreduction. Additionally, postoperative treatment is performed with carboplatin/paclitaxel for six cycles. So far there are no data to support the introduction of non-cross-resistant agents, dose escalation or prolongation of therapy. The majority of advanced stage patients relapse despite optimal primary therapy. Treatment of recurrent disease follows palliative considerations and should serve symptom control and tumor regression and especially quality of life. The prognosis of recurrent disease differs extensively according to the length of the progression-free survival and response to primary platinum-based chemotherapy and is differentiated into platinum-refractory and platinum-sensitive disease. Platinum-refractory OC generally have an extensive chemoresistance against all available cytostatic agents. Various mono-chemotherapies do not exceed response rates of 20%. In contrast, platinum-sensitive recurrent OC have a much more favourable prognosis due to response rates of 30-50% with platinum-based combination therapies. Another operation seems to be only reasonable in case of platinum-sensitive recurrent disease and if the tumor can be macroscopically resected with no residual tumor The aftercare in OC should focus on the detection of recurrent disease and the detection and therapy of maintained treatment related toxicities as well as psycho-oncological aspects.

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