Abstract:

Purpose:Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is a standard treatment for patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). An optimal chemotherapy regimen with concurrent thoracic radiotherapy is not known. In this study, we investigated the efficacy and toxicity of CCRT with carboplatin [area under curve (AUC) 2] and paclitaxel (80 mg/m2) during CCRT. Materials and Methods:We performed a retrospective survival analysis using medical records of 40 patients with inoperable stage III NSCLC that were treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy with carboplatin-paclitaxel (AUC 2, 60 mg/m2). Results:The median patient age was 62 years (range: 40–77 years) and 36 patients (90%) were men. The European Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance score was 0 in 23 patients (57.5%). The most common histopathology was adenocarcinoma, which was diagnosed in 18 patients (45%). There were 12 stage IIIA patients (30%) and 28 stage IIIB patients (70%). The median follow-up time was 22.5 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.9–72.2]. Median disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were 22.5 months (95% CI, 18.1–27.0) and 53.5 months (95% CI, 23.5–82.8). Grade 3-4 hematological and non-hematological toxicities were seen in 8 (20%) and 5 (12.5%) patients, respectively. Conclusion:This study showed that CCRT with weekly carboplatin-paclitaxel provides similar outcomes to cases in the literature and the regimen seems to be feasible with a low rate of grade 3-4 toxicity during CCRT of non-operable stage III NSCLC.

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