Multimodality treatment for small cell bronchial carcinoma. Preliminary results of a prospective, multicenter trial. The ISC-Lung Cancer Study Group

Preliminary results of the 1984 ISC (International Society of Chemotherapy) lung cancer studies I and II as of June 1990 are based on 146 patients with small cell bronchial carcinoma from 23 departments of thoracic surgery. All patients received surgery for cure in cTNM stages I and II followed by randomization for two different types of chemotherapy. For disease-free patients after completion of postoperative chemotherapy, prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) was administered. For the two different chemotherapeutic regimens, no statistically significant differences in survival (SVR) could be observed. Each patient was classified by the pTNM system. There were 63 patients with stage I, 44 patients with stage II and 38 patients with stage III disease. Four years after surgery, 63 patients with N0 disease had a SVR of 50%, 51 patients with N1 disease 31%, and 32 patients with N2 disease, 23%. No prolongation of brain-metastasis-free time for 62 patients receiving PCI was shown. It is concluded that initial surgical resection for small cell lung cancer in stages I and II followed by intensive chemotherapy is an appropriate therapeutic approach.