Combined modality therapy including surgery for stage III small-cell lung cancer on the basis of the sensitivity assay in vitro

Fifty-nine consecutive patients with clinical stage (cStage) I-III resectab le small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) underwent surgery with adjuvant chemothera py based on an in vitro sensitivity assay between April 1982 and March 1992 , In 42 (71%) of these patients, a stable passage of cancer cells from rese cted specimens was possible and the sensitivity of these cultured SCLC cell s to anticancer drugs was examined by the MTT method. In the sensitivity as say, vincristine (VCR) showed the most intense specific efficacy for SCLC, followed by cyclophosphamide (CPM) and cisplatin (CDDP), The 5-year surviva l rates for pathological stage (pStage) I, pStage II, and pStage III were 5 5%, 33%, and 23%, respectively. The 5-year survival of the patients with pS tage III operated on in the first 5 years was 7% (1/14). On the other hand, 6 of the 16 pStage III patients (38%) operated on during the second 5-year period, who were generally treated with pre- and postoperative adjuvant ch emotherapy combined with three drugs, survived over 5 years. In conclusion, these results suggest that combined modality therapy including surgery is necessary, and adjuvant chemotherapy combined with VCR, CPM, and CDDP may b e useful in the treatment of Stage III SCLC disease, for the purpose of ach ieving a long-term survival with both a good performance status and quality of life for the patients.