Retrospective review of stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with carboplatin/paclitaxel plus radiotherapy followed by docetaxel

Abstract

18123 Background: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy is standard of care for unresectable patients and the most widely cited trials include the locally advanced multi-modality protocol (LAMP) study, SWOG S9019 and S9504. Our institutional approach represents a merger between the protocols utilized in two of these phase II studies: chemoradiotherapy from the LAMP study and consolidation therapy from SWOG S9504. Methods: We identified all stage III patients treated at the NF/SG VHS from Jan 2001 to Dec 2005. Eligible patients who had unresectable stage III NSCLC were included in the analysis. We treated 34 patients with weekly paclitaxel 45 mg/m2 plus carboplatin AUC 2 and concurrent TRT 63.0 Gy over 7 weeks. Four weeks after the completion of chemoradiotherapy, docetaxel 75 mg/m2 was given every 3 weeks for 21 days for 3 cycles as consolidation. Our primary endpoints were overall and progression free survival. The secondary endpoints were response rate and toxicity. Results: With a median age of 65 years and follow-up time of 25.9 months, median overall survival was 13.7 mos. Median progression free survival was 9.8 mos. The overall response rate was 68% including 5 CRs (15%). The most common grade 3/4 toxicities included pneumonitis (21%), esophagitis (21%), neutropenia (21%) [febrile neutropenia (9%)], neuropathy (18%), anemia (15%) and hypersensitivity to paclitaxel (9%). 62% of patients were able to complete the planned treatment. There were no treatment related deaths. At the time of this analysis, 9 patients were alive (26%) including 7 without progression (21%). Conclusions: Chemoradiotherapy with weekly carboplatin and paclitaxel followed by consolidation therapy with docetaxel is associated with comparable outcomes to other combined modality regimens. Given the advanced age and co-morbidities of our population, this regimen was generally well tolerated with the expected toxicities and can be considered as an option in the treatment of patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC. No significant financial relationships to disclose.