• Roger Tell, Christer Sederholm, Claes Klintenberg, Lars Franksson, Eva Brandén, Gunnar Hillerdal, Ulf Lönn, Carl-Johan Lindén, Sven-Börje Ewers, Kristina Lamberg, Eva Mrazek, Britta Lödén, Anders Sjögren, Thomas Linné, Signe Friesland, and Florin Sirzén.
• Department of Oncology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. tell_roger@lilly.com
• Anticancer Res. 2008 Sep 1; 28 (5B): 2851-7.

AimTo evaluate weekly induction chemotherapy followed by weekly concomitant chemoradiotherapy in a multicentre phase II study of patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; stage wet IIIB excluded).Patients And MethodsEligible patients received three weekly cycles of paclitaxel 100 mg/m2 and carboplatin AUC2 followed by six weekly cycles of paclitaxel 60 mg/m2 and carboplatin AUC2 in combination with thoracic radiotherapy (2 Gy per fraction and day to a total dose of 60 Gy).ResultsSixty-four patients (40 males and 24 females) with a median age of 63 years (range, 43-79 years) entered the study. T and N stage were distributed as follows: T1 2 patients (3.2%), T2 10 patients (15.6%), T3 15 patients (23.4%), T4 37 patients (57.8%); N0 10 patients (15.6%), N1 1 patient (1.6%), N2 26 patients (40.6%), N3 26 patients (40.6%), and N missing 1 patient (1.6%). Seven patients (10.9%) suffered from grade 3/4 oesophagitis. Grade 1/2 oesophagitis occurred in 36 patients (56.3%) and pneumonitis grade 1/2 occurred in 10 patients (15.6%). Sixty-three patients were evaluated on an intent-to-treat basis. The overall response rate was 74.6%. The median time to progression was 247 days and median overall survival was 461 days. According to subgroup analyses, no statistically significant differences were noted according to gender, age (<65 vs. > or =65 years), performance status, histology, or study centre.ConclusionInduction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy with weekly cycles of paclitaxel and carboplatin is feasible and generates moderate toxicity. Efficacy is comparable to other recently published regimens. However, prognosis remains, in general, poor for this group of patients and further work to develop better therapy is required.

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