Objective  To investigate the promising anti-tumor effects of gemcitabine and/or docetaxel on metastatic or unresectable soft tissue sarcomas.

  Methods  Data of 11 patients with advanced soft tissue sarcomas refractory to first-line chemotherapy treatment were enrolled in this study. They received gemcitabine alone or gemcitabine/docetaxel combination as follows: 900 mg/m² gemcitabine on days 1 and 8, and 100 mg/m² docetaxel on day 8. The regimen was repeated every 3 weeks. When irradiation was conducted before drug therapy, the doses were reduced to 675 mg/m² gemcitabine on days 1 and 8, and 75 mg/m² docetaxel on day 8. The regimen was repeated every 3 weeks.

  Results  The gemcitabine/docetaxel combination was well tolerated. The most commonly observed hematologic toxicity of the combined therapy was neutropenia (45.5 %). The most common non-hematologic toxicity observed was mucositis (45.5 %). The overall response was 45.5%. Follow-ups ranging from 1 month to 36 months (median = 19 months) revealed that the median overall survival time was 15.4 months (95% CI = 8.012 - 21.598) and the median progression-free survival time was 8.4 months (95 % CI = 7.342 - 8.768). The one- and two-year survival rates were 81.8 % and 27.3 %, respectively.

  Conclusion  Conclusion: A gemcitabine/docetaxel regimen as second-line treatment for patients with advanced soft tissues sarcomas is effective and has acceptable toxicities. These results should be evaluated in a large-sample Ⅲ trial.