Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) With Paclitaxel Plus Cisplatin in LA Non-small-cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

Lung cancer is a major cause of cancer death in Taiwan and throughout the world in both developed and developing countries. More than 75% of NSCLC patients are inoperable because of either distantly metastatic disease or disease confined to one hemithorax with one or more criteria of unresectability at the time of presentation. The prognosis of such inoperable metastatic patients is poor.

The benefit of adding chemotherapy to radiation therapy for stage III disease of NSCLC is well-established. The largest of the prospective trials was sponsored by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), ECOG, and the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), and allocated 490 patients to receive 2 months of cisplatin + vinblastine chemotherapy followed by 60 Gy of radiation at 2 Gy per fraction; or one of two radiation-alone arms. Overall survival was statistically superior for the patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation versus the other two arms of the study (13.2 months vs 12 months, vs 11.4 months, respectively; p=0.04).

Administration of chemotherapy concurrently with radiation therapy theoretically improves local control by sensitizing the tumor to radiation, while simultaneously treating systemic disease, albeit at the expense of greater local toxicity. Two large phase III studies suggest improvement in both local control and survival with concurrent chemoradiotherapy as compared with sequential chemotherapy followed by radiation for patients with stage III NSCLC. Although rates of nonhematologic toxicity were higher on the concurrent arms, median survival time trended toward superiority in the concomitant chemotherapy plus daily radiation arm compared with the sequential arm.

One source of debate is whether the addition of induction or consolidation chemotherapy adds anything to concomitant chemoradiotherapy, with numerous intergroup trials underway. CALGB has completed a randomized phase II study of two cycles of induction chemotherapy followed by two additional cycles of the same drugs with concomitant radiotherapy. The three treatment arms included four cycles of cisplatin (80 mg/m2) combined with either gemcitabine, paclitaxel, or vinorelbine. Radiotherapy was completed during the last two cycles to a total of 66 Gy. Response rates were similar, and median survival for all patients was 17 months with no clearly superior arm evident in this randomized phase II trial.

We proposed this clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity profile of combination chemotherapy with paclitaxel and cisplatin in previously untreated, stage IIIa/IIIb NSCLC patients who received 1 cycle of induction chemotherapy, followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy, with 2 cycles of consolidation chemotherapy.