Randomized phase II study of concurrent cisplatin/etoposide or paclitaxel/carboplatin and thoracic radiotherapy in patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer

To evaluate the activity and safety of concurrent thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) plus weekly paclitaxel/carboplatin (PC) regimen compared with widely used cisplatin/etoposide (PE) regimen in patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Patients were randomly assigned to receive the following treatments: PE arm, cisplatin (50mg/m(2)) on days 1, 8, 29, and 36 and etoposide (50 mg/m(2)) on days 1-5 and 29-33 plus 60 Gy of TRT; PC arm, weekly concurrent carboplatin (AUC = 2) and paclitaxel (45 mg/m(2)) plus 60 Gy of TRT.A total of 65 patients were randomized (PE arm, n = 33; PC arm, n = 32). The 3-year overall survival (OS) was significantly better in the PE arm than in the PC arm (33.1% vs. 13%, P = .04). The incidence of Grade 3/4 neutropenia was 78.1% in the PE arm and 51.5% in the PC arm (P = .05). The rate of Grade 2 or greater radiation pneumonitis was 25% in the PE arm and 48.5% in the PC arm (P = .09).Compared to PE regimen, weekly PC regimen cannot be recommended since it failed to achieve an improvement in either OS or PFS.