Neoadjuvant cisplatin plus vinblastine chemotherapy in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer
Article Abstract:
About 130,000 cases of non-small cell lung cancer were diagnosed in the United States in 1991. In only about one-third of these cases were the cancers small enough for potentially curative surgical treatment. About 40 percent of the remaining patients have Stage III disease, which is defined as advanced within the chest, but without obvious indications of metastatic spread of the cancer to other parts of the body. Such patients are generally treated with radiation, and 50 to 60 percent are likely to respond. Unfortunately, fewer than five percent of these patients are likely to survive five years. Although symptoms of metastatic cancer are not present in stage III disease, tiny nests of cancer cells have already established themselves in distant sites. These patients may benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Although chemotherapy is not particularly effective in patients with metastatic disease, there is some hope that chemotherapy might prove more useful in the treatment of patients who have locally advanced disease without obvious metastases. A total of 28 patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer not amenable to surgery were treated with cisplatin and vinblastine. A total of 15 patients achieved partial responses, a response rate of 54 percent. Of these 15 patients, 5 experienced tumor regression to the point where surgery was deemed practical, but complete tumor resection was only accomplished in 2 patients. The patients for whom surgery remained impractical were treated with radiation. The one-year survival rate for the patients in this study was 54 percent; the three-year survival rate was 11 percent. The results of this study indicate that cisplatin chemotherapy provides improved survival, albeit modest, for patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Cancer
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0008-543X
Year: 1991
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Chemotherapy plus radiotherapy compared with radiotherapy alone in the treatment of locally advanced, unresectable, non-small-cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis
Article Abstract:
The combination of chemotherapy and radiation treatment appears to provide a modest increase in life expectancy for patients with advanced lung cancer. Researchers pooled the results from 14 studies involving a total of 2589 patients with advanced lung cancer that compared the survival benefits of radiation alone with radiation plus chemotherapy. Radiation plus chemotherapy increased the life expectancy by a mean of two months when compared with radiation alone. The order of the treatments did not affect the size of the benefit.
Publication Name: Annals of Internal Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0003-4819
Year: 1996
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