[Therapy of primary resistant or recurrent small cell bronchial carcinoma with vindesine and ifosfamide]

A combination of vindesine (3 mg/m2, day 1) and ifosfamide (60 mg/kg, days 1-5 + Mesna) was administered every three weeks to 11 patients with primary resistant and 23 with recurrent small-cell bronchial carcinoma. All patients had been pre-treated with chemotherapy, 16 in addition with radiotherapy. At the onset of the vindesine-ifosfamide treatment the cancer was in a localized regional stage in ten patients, while in 24 it was in a more widely spread stage. In 29 patients whose treatment results could be evaluated the remission rate was 38%, with two complete and nine partial remissions. In a further eight patients the cancer was arrested. The patients with complete remission (for 46 and 53 weeks, respectively), those with partial remission (median of 39 weeks) and those with stationary disease (median of 31 weeks) survived significantly longer than those with progressing disease (13 weeks). There was no correlation between treatment result and pre-treatment. On recurrence after complete remission or in the localized regional stage the remission rate was 70% and 60%, respectively, and the survival time was extended in 90% of cases. In addition to nausea, alopecia and myelosuppression, side-effects included vomiting, reversible CNS symptoms, polyneuropathy and urotoxicity. On the basis of acceptable toxicity, combined vindesine and ifosfamide constitute an effective treatment of otherwise treatment-refractory cases of small-cell bronchial carcinoma.