COMBINATION OF CHEMOTHERAPY AND RECOMBINANT INTERFERON-ALPHA IN ADVANCED NONSMALL CELL LUNG-CANCER

Some studies have shown that the combination of chemotherapy and inter feron in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other solid tumors is feasible and possesses antitumor activity. Our study was aimed at veri fying whether the addition of recombinant human interferon alpha (rh-I FN alpha) to combined chemotherapy would be able to increase the respo nse rate and survival of patients with NSCLC. Thirty-eight patients wi th previously untreated advanced NSCLC were evaluated in this study. M edian age of patients was 57 years; performance status according to EC OG 0 and 1, 37 pts (97%); stage IIIB, 27 pts (71%); stage IV, 11 pts ( 29%). Histology was squamous cell carcinoma in 53%, adenocarcinoma 44% and large cell carcinoma 3%. Our schedule consisted of 80 mg/m(2) cis platin IV, 100 mg/m(2) etoposide IV, 10 million U rh-IFN alpha IV and 10 million U rh-IFN alpha IV on first day of treatment, every 3 weeks. None of the patients had complete response. Partial response rate was 34%. Median response duration was 7 months (range 3-19 months), media n survival time was 11 months (range 4-41 months). Twenty-nine percent of patients had grade 3 nausea and vomiting, 24% had grade 2 leucopen ia, 5% had grade 2 cardiotoxicity, 2.6% had flu-like syndrome. Accordi ng to these results, in advanced NSCLC, the addition of rh-IFN alpha d id not increase the cisplatin-etoposide combined chemotherapy induced response rate and survival time.