Results of radiotherapy combined with CDDP (BAI) plus VP-16 in the treatment of inoperable non-small cell lung cancer

Twenty-six patients with unresectable non-small cell lung cancer were treated by chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy from June 1988 to May 1990. CDDP (80 mg/m2) was given by bronchial arterial infusion (BAI) on day 1 in each course, VP-16 (80 mg/body) was given by drip intravenous infusion on days 1 and 2, and VP-16 (150 mg/body) was given orally on days 3 and 5. The patients were irradiated after this regimen with a single dose of 1.8-2.0 Gy, five times each week, to a volume which encompassed only the primary tumor. A total dose of 60 Gy or more was delivered. There were 10 squamous cell carcinomas, 9 adenocarcinomas, 5 large cell carcinomas, 1 adenosquamous cell carcinoma and 1 poorly differentiated carcinoma. Median survival time (MST) was 354 days in stage IIIB patients and 280 days in stage IV patients. MST was 155 days in adenocarcinoma and 310 days in squamous cell carcinoma. MST was 372 days in PS 0 to 1 patients and 140 days in PS 2 patients. With chemo-radiotherapy in 17 cases resulted in no complete remissions and 10 partial remissions. The overall response rate was 58.8%. It is concluded that CDDP via BAI combined with VP-16 administration and sequential irradiation is useful in obtaining a high response rate in non-small cell lung cancer. However, further studies on this modality are required. (author)