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The activity and toxicity of oral etoposide in women with recurrent ovarian cancer are described from a case series of women who had measurable disease. All patients had had previous platinum-based chemotherapy. Etoposide was given as 50 mg/day for 21 days every 4 weeks until there was progression of the disease or prohibitive toxicity. Twelve patients were enrolled into this study. Ten patients received a total of 48 cycles of etoposide; the median number of cycles was 4 (range 1 - 11). There were two partial responses (20%; 95% CI, 0 - 45%). The responses lasted 3.5 and 6 months. Median progression-free interval (PFI) was 7.5 months (range 5.5 - 11), and median survival time was 8.5 months (range 1.2 - 21.5). The main haematological toxicity was leukopenia and no treatment-related death occurred. Although etoposide appears to exhibit activity in recurrent ovarian cancer, response and survival durations are short, with a high rate of complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]