Radiation therapy combined with or without chemotherapy for limited extent of non-small cell lung carcinoma

From July 1977 to December 1983, 130 patients with limited extent of non-small cell lung carcinoma received radiotherapy of more then 30 Gy combined with or without chemotherapy at the Center for Adult Diseases, Osaka, Japan. Four treatment arms were evaluated: RT alone, RT following chemotherapy, RT following low dose concurrent irradiation with chemotherapy (LDC-RT), and RT concurrently used with chemotherapy. Complete regression of local and regional tumor was produced in 5% and partial regression 58%. Among these four treatment arms LDC-RT showed the highest response rate (88%), while no difference in long-term survival was apparent. According to the RT dose, survival of cases who received RT doses above 50 Gy was better than that of cases under 50 Gy in spite of the combination with chemotherapy. These data suggest that adjuvant chemotherapy has no favorable impact against the survival. Concerning the prognostic factor, tumor response after treatment, general performance status and N stage were important.