Postprogression survival for first-line chemotherapy of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.
BACKGROUND
Given the growing number of drugs available for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), an effect of first-line chemotherapy on overall survival (OS) might be confounded by subsequent therapies. We examined the relation between postprogression survival (PPS) and OS in phase III trials of first-line chemotherapy for advanced NSCLC.


METHODS
A literature search identified 69 trials that were published during the past decade. We partitioned OS into progression-free survival (PFS) and PPS and evaluated the relation between OS and either PFS or PPS. We also examined whether any association might be affected by the year of completion of trial enrollment.


RESULTS
The average PPS was longer in recent trials than in older trials (6.5 versus 4.4 months, P < 0.0001). For all trials, PPS was strongly associated with OS (r = 0.82), whereas PFS was moderately associated with OS (r = 0.43). The correlation between OS and PPS in recent trials was stronger than that in older trials (r = 0.89 and 0.66).


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate that, especially for recent trials, PPS is highly associated with OS in first-line chemotherapy for advanced NSCLC, whereas PFS is only moderately associated with OS.
Department of Medical Oncology, Kinki University Faculty of Medicine, Osaka-Sayama, Japan.
H
H
Hayashi
I
I
Okamoto
S
S
Morita
M
M
Taguri
K
K
Nakagawa
D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D017326:Clinical Trials, Phase III as Topic; D018450:Disease Progression; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic