[Combination chemotherapy with multimodality approaches for small cell carcinoma of the lung]

Small cell carcinoma of the lung (SCCL) is disseminated at the presentation in most patients. Chemotherapy is, therefore, the principal therapeutic modality in this disease. The application of aggressive combination chemotherapy has resulted in an improved survival for patients with SCCL. In an attempt to improve therapeutic results, the current study was undertaken to test a cyclic alternating chemotherapy with the four-drug combination of COMP and a three-drug combination of VP-16, adriamycin and ACNU (VAN), which appeared non-cross-resistant to the former. In this study, also included two randomized clinical trials to test the effectiveness of concomitant chest irradiation in patients with limited disease, and to test the validity of prophylactic cranial irradiation for patients achieved complete remission. In this paper, results of the studies were analysed and discussed.