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Impact of obesity in the setting of high-dose chemotherapy

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 31, pages 961–966 (2003)Cite this article

Summary:

Obesity is a common and increasing problem affecting the developed world. Chemotherapy pharmacokinetics in the context of obesity demonstrate prolonged elimination time for several agents, but there is no consensus regarding optimal dosing schemes. Retrospective studies suggest differences in toxicity for obese adult patients but these data may be greatly impacted by chemotherapy dose adjustments. Outcome data from several studies have suggested that obese adult patients suffer poorer disease-free survival and overall survival, although this is not a uniform conclusion in all studies. Prospective studies of chemotherapy pharmacokinetics are needed to address the issue of optimal chemotherapy dosing in the obese population.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Lloyd Damon, MD, Charles Linker, MD and Hillard Lazarus, MD for their editorial assistance and Josephine Cefalo for her help in preparing this manuscript.

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  1. University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    W H Navarro

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Navarro, W. Impact of obesity in the setting of high-dose chemotherapy. Bone Marrow Transplant 31, 961–966 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704052

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