Dose-intensive therapy for small cell lung cancer

Enhancement of dose and dose intensity increases tumor response and may enhance long-term progression-free survival in patients with small cell lung cancer. Several strategies are identified to intensify therapy safely: a traditional induction/intensification mode, in which high-dose therapy with hematopoietic stem cell support is used to treat patients responding to conventional-dose therapy; and multicycle dose-intensive approaches, in which higher-dose therapy is administered over multiple cycles at initiation of therapy. This paper reviews some of the recently completed and activated trials (particularly those developed at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) exploring these concepts.