A Comparison of Gemcitabine in Two Doses for Stage III or IV Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: a Multi-Institutional Phase II Study

Abstract

Purpose: Since the combination of cisplatin plus gemcitabine (CG) had a significant survival advantage for the treatment of patients with chemotherapynaïve advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), CG combination have been evaluated with different schedules. However, the best schedule is still unclear. We designed to compare the efficacy and toxicity of CG combination chemotherapy in two different doses of gemcitabine (1,000 or 1,250 mg/m 2 3-weekly). 15.8%). No differences in non-haematologic toxicities in both arms except anorexia were observed. The median survival was 13.4 months for gemcitabine 1,000 mg group compared with 15.8 months for gemcitabine 1,250 mg group. There were no statistically significant differences in survival between the groups. Conclusion: For stage III or IV non-small cell lung cancer, combination chemotherapy with gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m 2 showed equivalent response rate with lesser neutropenia and anorexia compared to treatment with gemcitabine 1,250 mg/m 2 . (J Lung Cancer 2007;6(1):1 7)