H. Satoh et al., ANALYSIS OF LONG-TERM SURVIVORS AFTER PLATINUM-CONTAINING CHEMOTHERAPY IN ADVANCED NONSMALL CELL LUNG-CANCER, Anticancer research, 18(2B), 1998, pp. 1295-1298
Among 195 patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell
lung cancer(NSCLC), we evaluated the characteristics of two-year survi
vors. All the patients with stage IIIA-IV disease received platinum co
ntaining combination chemotherapy at Tsukuba University Hospital betwe
en 1985 and 1996. Fourteen patients (7.2%) and 7 patients (3.6%) survi
ved for more than 2 and 3 years, respectively Ten of the 14 responded
to initial chemotherapy, and 9 patients received additional treatment
such as thoracic irradiation and/or surgical resection. Three of the 1
4 patients survived more than 5 years disease free, one of them surviv
ed more than 10 years. From the results uni-and multivariate analyses
of these patients, early stage of the disease, low number of metastati
c site, without associated lung disease were confirmed as significant
determinants of survival This study revealed that a small proportion o
f patients with advanced NSCLC might be potentially curable with appro
priate treatment.