Abstract
The present study was carried out with the purpose of assessing and evaluating the responsiveness of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) to combined treatment (i.e., chemotherapy and radiotherapy). This approach was applied to all patients observed in our Institution during the last 6 years with the exclusion of patients more than 65 years old, with Karnofsky performance status less than 60, and with concomitant non-neoplastic diseases. One hundred and forty-eight patients were selected and treated with a combination chemotherapy regimen including cyclophosphamide, etoposide, epirubicin and cis-platinum. For patients with limited disease, treatment consisted of 3 cycles of chemotherapy (induction), followed by radiation therapy and then by another 3 cycles of chemotherapy (consolidation). For those with extensive disease, treatment consisted only of 6 consecutive cycles of chemotherapy. Results, besides showing the good activity and tolerability of the chemotherapeutic regimen employed (which induced 80 % overall response), indicated that some prognostic factors such as the number of metastatic sites, brain and liver involvement and performance status are essential in determining the outcome of response and, particularly, of survival. In addition, the efficacy and tolerability of the combination chemotherapy-radiotherapy were confirmed, as was the evidence of a synergistic pharmacologic effect between cis-platinum and etoposide.
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