PRELIMINARY-RESULTS OF A MULTICENTER STUDY - ONE-HOUR PACLITAXEL PLUSCARBOPLATIN FOR ADVANCED NON-SMALL-CELL LUNG-CANCER

We report here the preliminary results of a large phase II multicenter study done in the community setting, using paclitaxel (Taxol) (given by 1-hour infusion) plus carboplatin (Paraplatin) to treat patients wi th advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), In this study, 155 che motherapy-naive patients with stage IIIB, stage IV, or recurrent metas tatic non-small-cell lung cancer received the two drugs in 21-day cycl es, Paclitaxel 225 mg/m(2) was given by I-hour intravenous infusion fo llowed immediately by carboplatin at a targeted area render the concen tration-time curve of 6.0 (calculated according to the Calvert formula ), Colony-stimulating factors were not used routinely. Objective respo nses occurred in 53 of 155 patients (34%) (53 of 144 [36%] evaluable p atients) including three complete responses and 50 partial responses, Fifty-two other patients had stable disease at initial reevaluation, T he median survival among all 155 patients was 8 months; the I-year sur vival rate was 42%, and the 2-year survival rate was 20%, Leukopenia a nd cumulative peripheral neuropathy occurred consistently but rarely w ere severe or affected the course of therapy. One patient died due to sepsis, Other grade 3 and grade 4 toxicities were uncommon, This pacli taxel-carboplatin combination chemotherapy appears to be a relatively convenient, safe, and active regimen in advanced non-small-cell lung c ancer.