Oral Vinorelbine and Cisplatin with Concurrent Radiotherapy After Induction Chemotherapy with Cisplatin and Docetaxel for Patients with Locally Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: The GFPC 05-03 Study

Introduction:The aim of this multicenter phase II trial was to evaluate the combination of oral vinorelbine and cisplatin with radiotherapy (RT) after cisplatin-docetaxel induction chemotherapy (CT) in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Patients and Methods:Patients with previously untreated, inoperable, histologically or cytologically confirmed stage IIIA or IIIB NSCLC, with performance status ≤1 and weight loss ≤10% received two cycles of induction CT with cisplatin (75 mg/m2) and docetaxel (75 mg/m2) every 3 weeks. Patients with a tumor response or stabilization continued to receive cisplatin (80 mg/m2) and oral vinorelbine (40 mg/m2) on days 1 and 8 for two cycles, with concomitant thoracic RT (2 Gy/d, 5 d/wk, and total dose 66 Gy).Results:Fifty-six patients were enrolled. All patients (n = 38) who received CT-RT were assessable for the tumor response. There were no complete responses. In the intent-to-treat analysis, the response rates were 32.1% after induction CT and 41.1% after CT-RT. The median progression-free and overall survival times were 9.2 months (95% confidence interval: 7–14) and 20.8 months (95% confidence interval: 13.7–24.1), respectively. Adverse effects of RT-CT were grades 3 to 4 neutropenia (four patients) and grade 3 esophageal toxicity (one patient). No treatment-related deaths occurred.Conclusion:The oral vinorelbine-cisplatin combination with concurrent RT is feasible and has a favorable risk-benefit ratio in stage IIIA/IIIB NSCLC.