Long-term survival in patients with small cell lung cancer

Of the 66 patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) who were treated by combination chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy from July 1978 to December 1983 at the National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, 12 (18%) survived over two years and nine (14%) have remained disease-free over three years. The two-year survival rates were compared according to the patient characteristics of sex, performance status (PS), extent of disease, histologic subtype, regimen of the initial chemotherapy and response to treatment. Sex, extent of disease and response to the initial chemotherapy were the most important prognostic factors. The prognosis for patients with liver or bone metastasis was poor. All disease-free survivors, except for two patients who were treated by surgical resection after chemotherapy, achieved complete response (CR) with chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy. Eleven of the 12 two-year survivors achieved CR. Because of the small number of patients in our study, it will be necessary to evaluate further the influence of prognostic factors in patients with SCLC in future studies.