Irinotecan plus cisplatin compared with etoposide plus cisplatin for extensive small-cell lung cancer
Kazumasa Noda, Yutaka Nishiwaki, Masaaki Kawahara, Shunichi Negoro, Takahiko Sugiura, Akira Yokoyama, Masahiro Fukuoka, Kiyoshi Mori, Koshiro Watanabe, Tomohide Tamura, Seiichiro Yamamoto, Nagahiro Saijo, Japan Clinical Oncology Group, Kazumasa Noda, Yutaka Nishiwaki, Masaaki Kawahara, Shunichi Negoro, Takahiko Sugiura, Akira Yokoyama, Masahiro Fukuoka, Kiyoshi Mori, Koshiro Watanabe, Tomohide Tamura, Seiichiro Yamamoto, Nagahiro Saijo, Japan Clinical Oncology Group
Abstract
Background: Irinotecan hydrochloride, a topoisomerase I inhibitor, is effective against small-cell lung cancer. In a phase 2 study of irinotecan plus cisplatin in patients with extensive small-cell lung cancer, there was a high response rate and a promising median survival time.
Methods: We conducted a multicenter, randomized, phase 3 study in which we compared irinotecan plus cisplatin with etoposide plus cisplatin in patients with extensive (metastatic) small-cell lung cancer.
Results: The planned size of the study population was 230 patients, but enrollment was terminated early because an interim analysis found a statistically significant difference in survival between the patients assigned to receive irinotecan and cisplatin and those assigned to receive etoposide and cisplatin; as a result, only 154 patients were enrolled. The median survival was 12.8 months in the irinotecan-plus-cisplatin group and 9.4 months in the etoposide-plus-cisplatin group (P=0.002 by the unadjusted log-rank test). At two years, the proportion of patients surviving was 19.5 percent in the irinotecan-plus-cisplatin group and 5.2 percent in the etoposide-plus-cisplatin group. Severe or life-threatening myelosuppression was more frequent in the etoposide-plus-cisplatin group than in the irinotecan-plus-cisplatin group, and severe or life-threatening diarrhea was more frequent in the irinotecan-plus-cisplatin group than in the etoposide-plus-cisplatin group.
Conclusions: Irinotecan plus cisplatin is an effective treatment for metastatic small-cell lung cancer.
Source: PubMed