[Perspectives on chemotherapy of cancer of the bronchi]

Chemotherapy of epidermoid bronchial cancer maintains, despite numerous therapeutic trails, a minimal efficacy and is shown to have no important effect on the duration of survival. Conversely, the immediate results obtained by chemotherapy for small cell carcinoma are remarkable particularly for the localised forms; there are numerous active drugs which can be usefully combined with radiotherapy to increase the level of complete remission and to attempt to influence the eventual outcome which remains unfavourable. However, this chemotherapy should benefit from the multiple research programmes which are currently underway to reinforce the effects of chemotherapy (new combinations of effective cytotoxic drugs, and the potential for changing biological responses) and to improve the techniques of application (for example, continuous infusions and chronomodulation). The intensification of chemotherapy (with or without the use of marrow transplants) seems to constitute, by the reduction of tumour mass that is induced, a factor determining the improvement in long-term results but is still limited only to small cell carcinomas.