Phase II study of low-dose weekly paclitaxel as second-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Phase II study of weekly paclitaxel as second-line therapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

“…Similar data were reported also by Juan et al [14], who observed a 50% RR in patients with non-squamous tumors compared to 29% in patients with squamous histology. A higher response rate was observed by Fossella et al in patients with adenocarcinoma treated with docetaxel [32].…”

“…However, no case of clinically relevant hyperglycemia, which could be of concern in weekly schedules [9], was observed. The overall response and disease stabilization rate for our schedule was 36%, similar to that achieved by Socinski et al [13] in patients pretreated with carboplatin and paclitaxel but lower in comparison to data reported by Juan et al [14] in cisplatin-pretreated cases. However, in the latter trial there was a higher rate of cisplatin-responders compared to our series (55% versus 36%), that probably means a better selected population.…”

“…Non-hematological toxicity is minimal as well, with a remarkably low incidence of peripheral neuropathy in cisplatin-pretreated population. Hypersensitivity reactions were somehow more frequent in comparison to other reports [12][13][14], probably due to lower dose of dexamethasone in our premedication regimen. However, no case of clinically relevant hyperglycemia, which could be of concern in weekly schedules [9], was observed.…”

“…Moreover, median PFS was significantly longer for patients with good PS (3 months versus 1 month). A higher RR to weekly paclitaxel in patients with PS 1 compared to PS 2 was recorded also by Juan et al [14]. PS was a good predictor of response in patients treated with docetaxel [5,6].…”

“…Since paclitaxel was found to be an active drug in a number of solid tumors, both in refractory and chemo-naïve patients, a number of phase I and II studies have explored and confirmed its activity and toxicity profile in different clinical settings [7]. Paclitaxel has significant first-line activity in NSCLC as a single-agent [8,9] and in combination treatment [10]; it has been examined as second-line therapy in NSCLC, but its activity has not been defined yet due to conflicting results of already published studies [8,[11][12][13][14]. The characteristics of treated patients with regard to performance status, prior therapy, previous response and disease-free interval were not always clearly reported in most of available second-line studies.…”