A 4-DRUG COMBINATION CHEMOTHERAPY WITH CISPLATIN, MITOMYCIN, VINDESINE AND 5-FLUOROURACIL - A REGIMEN ASSOCIATED WITH MAJOR TOXICITY IN PATIENTS WITH ADVANCED NONSMALL CELL LUNG-CANCER

Purpose: To determine in patients with advanced non-small cell lung ca ncer the activity of a 4-drug combination chemotherapy. Patients and m ethods: Chemotherapy consisted of the administration of cisplatin (30 mg/m2 d 1-3 or 4), mitomycin C (10 mg/m2 d 1), vindesine (3 mg/m2 d 1) and 5-FU (1 g/m2 d 1-3 or 4 by continuous intraveneous infusion. Resu lts: 182 were eligible patients. A 34% objective response rate was obs erved in the 164 evaluable patients. The overall median survival was 2 6 weeks. The most serious adverse event was the occurrence of 18 (10%) cardiac or sudden deaths. These toxic deaths were significantly assoc iated with a greater-than-or-equal-to5% loss of body weight prior to t herapy. Conclusions: The regimen studied resulted in a very significan t cardiac toxicity.