Phase II evaluation of bleomycin in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer

Twenty-four patients received bleomycin twice weekly im. Treatment was given for 3 weeks initially, and if there was no evidence of disease progression treatment was given for another 3 weeks. Four patients had partial responses of 2, 4, 4, and 5 months' duration. Three patients had stable disease which did not progress for at least 4 months. There were ten patients with ascites; three of these showed a significant reduction in the amount of ascites present during treatment. There was a partial reduction of tumor in one of these patients. Toxicity was minimal with this regimen, and bleomycin deserves further study in the treatment of ovarian cancer.