Although there is clinical evidence that cancer patients become less interested in sexuality and develop some difficulties in sharing feelings and thoughts with their spouses, systematic information on the factors influencing intimacy are lacking. The aim of this study is to explore the importance of variables such as reaction to illness and scarring, and marital satisfaction on the patients' capability to resume an enjoyable sexual life following surgery and radiation for the treatment of their tumors.

The aim of this study was to identify a chemotherapy combination that would be active and well tolerated for palliative treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). From February 1992 to December 1994, a total of 77 patients affected by stage-IIIB and stage-IV NSCLC were treated with carboplatin 350 mg/m2 on day 1 and vinorelbine 25 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 of each cycle, with cycles repeated every 28 days. All patients were evaluable for response and toxicity. A total of 24 patients showed a partial response (31% response rate; 95% CI = 21-41%). The median duration of overall survival was 41 weeks (95% CI = 31-51), and the median time to disease progression was 34 weeks (95% CI = 25-43). The treatment was well tolerated: no grade-4 toxicity was observed. The carboplatin-vinorelbine combination deserves to considered as a valid alternative to regimens that include cisplatin for palliative treatment of advanced NSCLC.