Do all patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer benefit from cisplatin-based combination therapy?

Platinum-based chemotherapy has been shown to be effective in improving survival and quality of life in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The objective of this study was to identify patients more likely to benefit from chemotherapy in order to avoid the indiscriminate treatment of all patients.

A multivariate analysis of survival was performed using the database of the European randomized phase III trial that compared vinorelbine (navelbine) (NVB), vinorelbine-cisplatin (NVB-P) and vindesine-cisplatin (VDS-P) in 612 patients with inoperable NSCLC (stage III or IV). Interactions between treatment and the prognostic factors singled out by the Cox procedure were specifically tested.

The performance status (PS) was the only significant interaction among the selected prognostic factors and treatment. Subgroup analysis showed that the advantage obtained with NVB-P predominantly concerned PS 0-1 patients, whose median survival lasted 43 weeks (95% confidence interval (95% CI): 39-50 weeks) with a one-year survival rate of 38% (95% CI: 31%-46%) versus 36 weeks (95%, CI: 30-40 weeks) and 34% (95% CI: 27%-42%) for NVB alone, and 33 weeks (95% CI: 30-39 weeks) and 29% (95% CI: 22%-36%) for VDS-P. In sharp contrast, survival in PS 2 patients was similar (median 18 weeks) (NVB-P 95% CI: 11-34 weeks; NVB 95% CI: 11-35 weeks; VDS-P 95% CI: 14-32 weeks) whatever the treatment.

PS 2 patients with advanced NSCLC might not benefit from cisplatin combination therapy.