Topotecan in second-line treatment of small-cell lung cancer--how it works in our daily clinical practice?
Lung cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies and it causes more than 1 million deaths each year worldwide. Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for about 15 to 20% of all lung cancers and it is an extremely aggressive cancer, having a response rate of 60-80% with the standard first-line chemotherapy (CT). Topotecan is a topoisomerase I inhibitor currently approved for relapsed SCLC. The authors reviewed the clinical files of SCLC's patients (pts) of a single institution, the Portuguese Institute of Oncology-Porto Centre, in a five year period. The end-points were to evaluate response rates (RR), time to progression (TTP), overall survival (OS) and toxicity profile of topotecan as a second-line treatment of SCLC. From January of 2002 to December of 2006, it was diagnosed 146 pts with SCLC, 32 were submitted to second-line treatment and 23 with topotecan. The RR was 17.4%, median TTP and median survival after topotecan were 2.8 months and 6.3 months, respectively, and median OS was 17.5 months. The incidence of grade 3 and 4 adverse events was 16.6 and 2.6%, respectively. Topotecan showed clinical activity in our unselected daily patients with relapsed SCLC, with acceptable toxicity, in accordance with the published literature.
Faria
Ana Luísa Lourenço Moreira
AL
Department of Medical Oncology, Portuguese Institute of Oncology-Porto Centre, Porto, Portugal.
Bravo
Emilio Macias
EM
Rocha
Marta Alexandra Silva Soares
MA
Rocha
Isabel Maria Azevedo
IM
Coelho
Ana Luísa Pequeno
AL
Araújo
António Manuel Ferreira
AM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055752:Small Cell Lung Carcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D019772:Topotecan / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D019772:Topotecan