Lung cancer

In small cell lung cancer (SCLC) combination chemotherapy including agents such as etoposide, teniposide, cisplatinum, carboplatin, and vincristine, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide, or ifosfamide continues to be the back-bone of therapy. The epipodophyllotoxin derivatives together with cisplatin or carboplatin are being used increasingly as part of the initial therapy, and these combinations are by most investigators considered standard therapy. Complete plus partial responses to combination therapy occur in 80-90% of all patients with a median duration of 9-12 months. The median survival in these studies is at present 11-18 months depending on the initial tumour stage. The 5-year survival data remain still around 5% including a small fraction of patients (2%) initially presenting with extensive disease. The tendency is to shorten the duration of treatment to 5-8 months. The results of intensifying the treatment with the use of haematopoietic growth factors continue to be disappointing, although these are not conclusive. With respect to squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma several meta-analyses indicate that there is a statistically significant, albeit small advantage favouring cisplatinum containing chemotherapy when added to surgery in stage I and II disease and to radiotherapy in stage III NSCLC. Similarly, cisplatin containing chemotherapy is statistically superior to best supportive care in stage IV disease. The results from the latter analyses are significant at 1 and 2 years, respectively, but not at 3 and 5 years of survival. These data must, however, be considered in the light of their clinical relevance and of the balance between quality of life, toxicity, and cost of chemotherapy. The results of recently published phase III trials in stage III disease support the use of combined modalities of chemotherapy and radiotherapy versus radiotherapy alone. For both small cell and non-small cell lung cancer a number of new agents have been evaluated over the last 2 to 3 years and among those navelbine, topotecan, gemcitabine, and taxanes (taxol and taxotere) have yielded the most encouraging results. For mesothelioma the therapeutic results are unchanged, and no standard chemotherapy has yet been developed.