Background: S-1 plus cisplatin is a standard chemotherapy regimen for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The addition of bevacizumab has been shown to significantly improve overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced non-squamous (NSq) NSCLC who received carboplatin plus paclitaxel, however, failed to show an OS advantage in patients who received cisplatin plus gemcitabine.
Methods: Chemotherapy-naive patients with Stage IIIB, IV or recurrent non-SQ NSCLC were treated with a 3-week cycle of S-1 80 mg/m2 on days 1-14, cisplatin 60 mg/m2 on day 8 and bevacizumab 15 mg/kg on day 8 for 4-6 cycles. Patients without progressive disease (PD) received maintenance bevacizumab 15 mg/kg on day 1 with a 3-week cycle and S-1 80 mg/m2 every other day. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary endpoints were objective response rate (ORR), OS, toxicity profile and Quality of life (QOL).
Results: From June 2013 to January 2015, 39 eligible patients were enrolled from eight institutions. Thirty-one patients (79%) completed four cycles of induction chemotherapy, and maintenance chemotherapy was initiated in 23 patients (59%). Median PFS, OS and ORR were 7.3 months (95% CI: 5.9-8.7), 21.4 months (95% CI: 14.7-not reached) and 64%, respectively. The most common grade 3/4 toxicities were leukopenia (12.8%), neutropenia (23.0%) and hypertension (28.2%). QOL analyses showed detrimental effects after initiation of the regimen.
Conclusions: S-1 plus cisplatin in combination with bevacizumab met the primary endpoint in patients with advanced NSq-NSCLC. RR was anticipated to be high with acceptable toxicities.
Keywords: S-1; bevacizumab; lung cancer; non-squamous NSCLC; progression free survival.
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.