Purpose: To evaluate 74 Gy thoracic radiation therapy (TRT) with induction and concurrent chemotherapy in stage IIIA/B non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Patients and methods: Patients with stage IIIA/B NSCLC were randomly assigned to induction chemotherapy with either carboplatin (area under the curve [AUC], 6; days 1 and 22) with paclitaxel (225 mg/m(2); days 1 and 22; arm A) or carboplatin (AUC, 5; days 1 and 22) with gemcitabine (1,000 mg/m(2); days 1, 8, 22, and 29; arm B). On day 43, arm A received weekly carboplatin (AUC, 2) and paclitaxel (45 mg/m(2)) while arm B received biweekly gemcitabine (35 mg/m(2)) both delivered concurrently with 74 Gy of TRT utilizing three-dimensional treatment planning. The primary end point was survival at 18 months.
Results: Forty-three and 26 patients were accrued to arms A and B, respectively. Arm B was closed prematurely due to a high rate of grade 4 to 5 pulmonary toxicity. The overall response rate was 66.6% (95% CI, 50.5% to 80.4%) and 69.2% (95% CI, 48.2% to 85.7%) on arm A and B, respectively. The median survival time (MST) and 1-year survival rate was 24.3 months (95% CI, 12.3 to 36.4) and 66.7% (95% CI, 50.3 to 78.7) and 12.5 months (95% CI, 9.4 to 27.6) and 50.0% (95% CI, 29.9 to 67.2) for arms A and B, respectively. The primary toxicities included esophagitis, pulmonary, and fatigue.
Conclusion: Arm A reached the primary end point with an estimated MST longer than 18 months and will be compared with a standard dose of TRT in a planned randomized phase III trial in the United States cooperative groups.