CARBOPLATIN AND VINORELBINE IN THE TREATMENT OF ADVANCED NON-SMALL-CELL LUNG-CANCER - A MULTICENTER PHASE-II STUDY

The aim of this study was to identify a chemotherapy combination that would be active and well tolerated for palliative treatment of advance d non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). From February 1992 to December 1 994, a total of 77 patients affected by stage-IIIB and stage-IV NSCLC were treated with carboplatin 350 mg/m(2) on day 1 and vinorelbine 25 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8 of each cycle, with cycles repeated every 28 d ays. All patients were evaluable for response and toxicity. A total of 24 patients showed a partial response (31% response rate; 95% CI = 21 -41%). The median duration of overall survival was 41 weeks (95% CI = 31-51), and the median time to disease progression was 34 weeks (95% C I = 25-43). The treatment was well tolerated: no grade-4 toxicity was ob served. The carboplatin-vinorelbine combination deserves to conside red as a valid alternative to regimens that include cisplatin for pall iative treatment of advanced NSCLC.