title: [Hydroxycamptothecine and ifosfamide as second-line therapy in non-small cell lung cancer after prior treatment with platinum-based regimens].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Multiple drug-resistance to platinum is one of important influencing factors failure to chemotherapy in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To study and explore the effective chemotherapy drugs and chemotherapeutic regimens inhibiting or reversing multiple drug-resistance is the popular problem in lung cancer clinic. The aim of this study is to evaluate the chemotherapeutic response and toxicities of combination of hydroxycamptothecine (HCPT) and ifosfamide (IFO) in patients with relapsed NSCLC after pretreatment with platinum-based regimens.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with NSCLC, performance status (PS) < or =2, with history of prior platinum-based chemotherapy and without impaired haematopoietic and organ function were eligible. Chemotherapy was administered as follows: HCPT 6-8mg/m² from 1st to 5th day, IFO 1.2mg/m² from the 1st to 3rd day which was recycled every 3 weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From June 2002 to December 2003, 69 patients were enrolled and 53 were evaluable for response and all 69 for toxicity. The total response rate was 11.3% (6/53), stable disease was 39.6% (21/53) and progressive disease was 49.1% (26/53). The main side-effect was haematological toxicity, with grade III-IV (G3-4) neutropenia in 12 patients, G3 thrombocytopenia and anemia in 4 and 4 patients respectively. Non-hematological toxicities were negligible. Alopecia rate was 87.0%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The combination of HCPT and IFO is a tolerable and effective combination regimen to apply in the treatment of cisplatin-pretreated NSCLC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Shanghai Pneumology Hospital, Shanghai 200433, P.R.China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Caicun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang