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Andrew T. Turrisi III, Kyungmann Kim, Ronald Blum, William T. Sause, Robert B. Livingston, Ritsuko Komaki, Henry Wagner, Seena Aisner, David H. Johnson
Methods. We studied 417 patients with limited small-cell lung cancer. All the patients received four 21-day cycles of cisplatin plus etoposide. We randomly assigned these patients to receive a total of 45 Gy of concurrent thoracic radiotherapy, given either twice daily over a three-week period or once daily over a period of five weeks.
Results. Twice-daily treatment beginning with the first cycle of chemotherapy significantly improved survival as compared with concurrent once-daily radiotherapy (P=0.04 by the log-rank test). After a median follow-up of almost 8 years, the median survival was 19 months for the once-daily group and 23 months for the twice-daily group. The survival rates for patients receiving once-daily radiotherapy were 41 percent at two years and 16 percent at five years. For patients receiving twice-daily radiotherapy, the survival rates were 47 percent at two years and 26 percent at five years. Grade 3 esophagitis was significantly more frequent with twice-daily thoracic radiotherapy, occurring in 27 percent of patients, as compared with 11 percent in the once-daily group (P<0.001).
Conclusions. Four cycles of cisplatin plus etoposide and a course of radiotherapy (45 Gy, given either once or twice daily) beginning with cycle 1 of the chemotherapy resulted in overall two- and five-year survival rates of 44 percent and 23 percent, a considerable improvement in survival rates over previous results in patients with limited small-cell lung cancer. (N Engl J Med 1999;340:265-71.)
From the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston (A.T.T.); the University of Wisconsin, Madison (K.K.); St. Vincent's Medical Center, New York (R.B.); LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City (W.T.S.); the University of Washington, Seattle (R.B.L.); M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston (R.K.); H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Fla. (H.W.); the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark (S.A.); and Vanderbilt University, Nashville (D.H.J.). Address reprint requests to Dr. Turrisi at the Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Radiation Oncology, 171 Ashley Ave., Charleston, SC 29425, or at turrisi@radonc.musc.edu.
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