2001 - A PHASE II STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF TAXOTERE AND CISPLATIN IN ADVANCED NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER
Dr. HO Chung Man, James, Division of Respiratory and Critical Care, University Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital
ABSTRACT:
Non-small cell lung cancer is the commonest cause of cancer death in Hong Kong and frequently presents itself at advanced stages. We have performed a phase II study of Taxotere and cisplatin in patients with metastatic or locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Chemotherapy-naive patients with histologically or cytologically proven stage III or IV unresectable NSCLC, no brain or leptomeningeal metastases and good performance status were recruited. Taxotere 75mg/m2 and cisplatin 75mg/m2 were given in 3-weekly intervals for 6 cycles. Results were obtained from 30 patients (10F) with age 57.1±7.4 years. There were 20 adenocarcinomas, 6 squamous cell carcinoma and 4 undifferentiated NSCLC with 2, 18, 10 in TNM stage IIIA, IIIB and IV. The objective response rates were 45%, 38% stable disease, and 17% progressive disease. Grade 3 or 4 neutropenia occurred in 55% of cycles in which 4 out of 30 patients required dose reduction and 2 of them required granulocyte-colony stimulating factor support. Neutropenic fever occurred in 17% of cycle. Grade 3 thrombocytopenia occurred in 3% of cycles. Significant toxicities (grade 3 or 4) included nausea (1%), vomiting (10%), diarrhoea (2%), infection (3%), asthenia (2%) and allergy (1%). There had been no treatment-related deaths. The median survival for patients in stage IIIB was 14.2 months and in stage IV was 15.8 months. The combination of Taxotere and cisplatin appears to be a fairly well tolerated and highly effective regimen in the treatment of advanced NSCLC.
