Purpose: The objective of this phase II study was to document the activity and to evaluate the toxicity of docetaxel and cisplatin as induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent docetaxel and cisplatin with thoracic radiation in locally advanced stage III non small cell lung cancer.
Patients and methods: Twenty-seven patients with stage III locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer received induction chemotherapy with two cycles of docetaxel 75mg/m2 and cisplatin 75mg/m2 D1 every 3 weeks. Patients without disease progress after induction chemotherapy were assigned to concurrent chemoradiotherapy 20mg/m2 docetaxel&25mg/m2 cisplatin administrated on day 1 every week for 6 weeks along with concurrent radiotherapy at a dose of 60Gy in 30 fractions (2 Gy/fraction and 5 fractions per week). The primary endpoint was to determine the overall response rate (ORR), the secondary endpoint was to evaluate time to progression (TTP) and safety profile.
Results: After induction chemotherapy, the overall response rate (ORR) was 44.4%, 23 patients without disease progress were assigned to concurrent treatment with an overall response rate of 65%. Median survival time was 17 months, time to progression was 11.5 months and the one-year survival was 58%. Neutropenia was the most common toxicity during induction therapy (26% expressed grade 3-4) whereas esophagitis was the most common toxicity during concurrent phase (17.3% expressed grade 3-4); toxicities were manageable.
Conclusion: Induction chemotherapy by docetaxel and cisplatin followed by weekly docetaxel and cisplatin with concurrent thoracic radiation therapy is feasible and tolerable. These results warrant further large randomized studies to document and confirm the effectiveness of this regimen. Key Words: Lung cancer , Docetaxel , Cisplatin , Concurrent chemoradiotherapy.