Annals of Oncology 10- 1087-1094. 1999. © 1999 Khmer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Original article

Background- The aim of this study was to assess the pharma-cology, toxicity and activity of high-dose ifosfamide/mesna ± GM-CSF administered by a five-day continuous infusion at a total ifosfamide dose of 12-18 g/m2 in adult patients with advanced sarcomas. Patients and methods: Between January 1991 and October 1992 32 patients with advanced or metastatic sarcoma were entered the study. Twenty-seven patients were pretreated in-cluding twenty-three with prior ifosfamide at less than 8 g/m2 total dose/cycle. In 25 patients (27 cycles) extensive pharma-cokinetic analyses were performed. Results: The area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) for ifosfamide increased linearly with dose while the AUC's of the metabolites measured in plasma by thin-layer chromatography did not increase with dose, particularly tha