Second-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic review

Among advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, most will resist or relapse after first-line chemotherapy. As a result, second-line therapy has been a major focus for clinical research.

A systematic review was carried out from 1996 to February 2005.

Second-line chemotherapy provides pre-treated NSCLC patients with a clear survival advantage. Docetaxel 75 mg/m(2) every 3 weeks is the present standard second-line chemotherapy. Despite promising results regarding efficacy and toxicity in phase III studies, a docetaxel weekly schedule could not be recommended. Pemetrexed recently emerged as an alternative with similar efficacy and less toxicity. Although the combination of two drugs was not associated with a survival benefit when compared with single-agent chemotherapy, such regimens induced a dramatic increase in toxicities and therefore mono-chemotherapy remains the standard as second-line therapy. Finally, few new agents were reported with better results than those used previously and clinical research on second-line therapy currently focuses on combinations with targeted therapies.

Second-line chemotherapy offers NSCLC patients a small but significant survival improvement. However, this field of clinical research needs further investigations in order to answer certain remaining questions especially concerning targeted therapies.