A phase II study of days 1 and 8 combination of docetaxel plus gemcitabine for the second-line treatment of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer and good performance status

The efficiency of single agent docetaxel in patients with platinum-refractory non-small cell lung carcinoma

“…Regarding staging, 18 patients (35%) were included with stage IIIB disease and 34 patients (65%) with stage IV. The patients with progressive dispnea (15 patients) also received palliative doses of radiotherapy (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36) to the tumoral region and/or mediastinum in Kocaeli University, Radiation Oncology Department. The patient characteristics are shown in Table 1.…”

“…Survival was only significantly affected by the PS since the median survival in patients with PS 0 Note: TXT, Docetaxel; VNR, Vinorelbine; IFO, Ifosfamide; PMX, Pemetrexed; TPT, Topotecan was 17.8 months compared with a median survival for patients with PS 1 of 6.1 months (P = 0.0057). Both hematologic and non-hematologic toxicity was mild and the authors concluded that this regimen of docetaxel in combination with gemcitabine in advanced second-line NSCLC was an active and safe regimen [34]. Docetaxel and irinotecan combination was also compared with docetaxel alone in two small phase II studies.…”

Single agent gemcitabine in the second-line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer after treatment with taxane + platinum regimens

“…Lung cancer is currently the most frequent cause of death among malignant tumors in the United States and Europe [1]. Due to the recent progress in the management of advanced NSCLC with new drug-platinum combinations, such as docetaxel/cisplatin or carboplatin, paclitaxel/carboplatin, gemcitabine/cisplatin or carboplatin, and vinorelbine/cisplatin, many patients are now surviving long enough with good performance status to be offered salvage chemotherapy after progression [3].…”

“…Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of death among malignant tumors [1]. Despite an increasing proportion of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) derive prolonged survival with novel chemotherapy regimens; many of them will require salvage chemotherapy after relapse [2].…”

Second and third line treatment in non-small cell lung cancer

“…Among patients treated with celecoxib, median survival (6.3 months) and 1-year survival (24%) were worse than in the chemotherapy alone arm (8.9 months and 36% respectively) [32]. Gemcitabine or vinorelbine combined to docetaxel [33,34], and gemcitabine combined to paclitaxel, were assessed in many phase II trials [35][36][37][38].…”