Oral vinorelbine as adjuvant chemotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer. A multicentre study of tolerability and feasibility
Abstract
The article reports of a study involving 21 lung oncology centres in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and concerned with the use of oral vinorelbine for adjuvant treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer. The subjects were stage IB, 11 and lllA patients after radical resection.
They were administered cisplatin - CDDP (80 mg/m2) or carboplatin - CBDCA (AUC 5) with vinorelbine (25 mg/m2 Dl intravenously and 60 mg/m2 D8 orally). After 4 cycles, tolerability, adverse reactions, dose intensity and short-time survival were evaluated.
A total of 154 patients received 586 chemotherapy cycles (a mean of 3.81 per patient). The most common WHO grade 3/4 toxicity was neutropenia in 10.3 %, leukopenia in 4 %, anaemia in 4.5 %, thrombocytopenia in 1.9 %, alopecia in 2.9 %, nausea in 5.8 %, neurotoxicity, diarrhoea and mucositis in 0.7 %.
The median follow-up was 0.96 year. As of today, 22 patients (14.3 %) have died, 9 patients (5.8 %) relapsed and 123 patients (79.9 %) live without disease progression.
The applied chemotherapy was well tolerated and with low toxicity, 84% of patients completed the planned therapy. The study continues to assess the median disease-free survival and overall survival.