Nedaplatin (NDP) has been extensively used to treat patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the last decade. The present study compared the survival benefits of NDP and cisplatin (DDP) in the treatment of NSCLC. Patients (n=392) with NSCLC were treated with at least two cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy. Among these patients, 202 received DDP-based chemotherapy, and 190 received NDP-based chemotherapy. The overall survival time of the two groups and the toxicity of drugs were analyzed. The results showed that only the chemotherapy cycle duration was found to be statistically different between DDP and NDP groups in all the characteristics. The mean chemotherapy duration was 3.3 cycles in the DDP group, and 4.1 cycles in the NDP group (χ2=20.206, P<0.001). Additionally, the chemotherapy cycle number was also an independent predictive factor for the overall survival time in the multivariate analysis (HR=0.539, P<0.001). The median survival time (MST) was 15 months in the DDP group, and 20 months in the NDP group (χ2=5.189, P=0.023). The 1-, 2- and 3-year overall survival rates were 62.4, 25.7 and 15.8%, and 78.9, 38.9, and 16.8% in the DPP and NDP groups, respectively. The incidence of grade 3-4 nausea/vomiting, anorexia and weight loss was higher in the DDP compared to the NDP group (36.1 vs. 8.4%, 17.3 vs. 5.8%, and 9.9 vs. 1%, respectively). In conclusion, NDP-based chemotherapy had a survival benefit compared to DDP-based chemotherapy for NSCLC patients, due to the lower toxicity of NDP, which renders this drug more tolerable, thus allowing patients to undergo more cycles of chemotherapy.
Keywords: chemotherapy; nedaplatin; non-small cell lung cancer; survival.