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Lung Cancer: September 1995

Last modified on: Tuesday, April 20, 1999 12:03:10
Copyright © 1994-2008, Information Ventures, Inc.
Lung cancer - An interesting survey carried out by Dr. Raby at the Kingston General Hospital in Canada, and reported in the August, 1995 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, concerned treatment of non- small cell lung cancer. In responding to a survey, 234 doctors generally concluded that neither adjuvant radiotherapy nor addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy improved survival of patients with this disease. In fact as the authors show, there are definite, though unfortunately limited, gains in survival. It appears that all too often, personal beliefs rather than knowledge guide clinical management decisions.

A new combination chemotherapy regimen for non-small cell lung cancer gave a 62% response rate and 54% one-year survival versus response rates of 40% or less and one-year survivals of 20-25% with most rarely surviving more than 25-30 weeks with best current therapy. This was reported by Dr. Langer and colleagues from the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, in the August, 1995 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology, describing their results with the platinum-containing carboplatin plus paclitaxel, with filgrastim to stimulate bone marrow recovery. The regimen was not too toxic since 60% of patients could undergo entire schedule. However, in an editorial, Drs. Johnson and Einhorn commented "New regimens are a lot like Elvis sightings - they frequently cause excitement but don't last long." This warning unfortunately reflects long experience with chemotherapy!

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