Phase II study of nedaplatin and irinotecan in patients with extensive small-cell lung cancer
The standard chemotherapy for Japanese patients with extensive disease of small-cell lung cancer (ED-SCLC) is cisplatin and irinotecan. Patients with untreated ED-SCLC were treated with nedaplatin (NP) at 50 mg/m2 and irinotecan (CPT) at 50 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 every 4 weeks for four cycles. Twenty-five patients were registered. Nineteen patients were male and six female, with a median age of 64 years (50–79 years). Two patients had a performance status of 2. Nineteen of them were able to receive 4 courses of NP and CPT chemotherapy. Grade 3 or 4 anemia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia occurred in 8.0, 68.0, and 36.0 % of patients, respectively. Other grade 3 toxicities were SGOT, hyponatremia, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension, febrile neutropenia, oral hemorrhage, and pneumonia. Grade 4 fatigue occurred in one patient. There was no treatment-related death. The overall response rate was 100 %. The median progression-free and overall survivals were 6.6 and 16.0 months, respectively, and the 2-year survival rate was 28 %. NP with CPT is effective and safe for patients with ED-SCLC.