Cisplatin and teniposide chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer

30 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer were treated with cisplatin 80 mg/m2, day 1, and teniposide 100 or 120 mg/m2, days 1, 3 and 5, every 3 weeks. Myelotoxicity, nausea and vomiting and alopecia were the main side-effects. 8 patients of 26 evaluable had partial responses (31%): 6 had received 120 mg/m2 teniposide and 2 had received 100 mg/m2 teniposide. Overall median survival time was 251 days. Myelotoxicity was significantly lower in patients who received 100 mg/m2 teniposide. Although the number of patients is small and they were not randomly assigned to the two different teniposide doses, it appears that higher dose of teniposide determined a greater degree of myelotoxicity, and also a higher response rate.