Phase II Study with Vinorelbine and Cisplatin in Ad vanced Non - Small Cell Lung Can cer

Tai wan and through out the world. The ma jor ity of non-small cell lung can cer (NSCLC) pa tients de velop met a static dis ease in their dis ease course; thus, sys temic che mo ther apy plays an im por tant role. The new chemo therapeutic drugs (vinorelbine, taxanes, and gem citabine) and their com bi na tions with cisplatin, have shown better re sponse rates and sur vival when com pared with con ven tional stan dard reg i mens. They have also been found to have some ben e fit to lengthen a me dian sur vival of 1-2 months, as com pared with the best sup port ive care. This pro longed sur vival is the main mo tive for the con sid er ation of a sec ond-line che mo ther apy in NSCLC pa tients. How ever, among the many new anti-cancer drugs which are ac tive in chemo-naive NSCLC pa tients, very few have shown any ma jor ac tiv ity in the sec ond-line treat ment. Cisplatin-based che mo ther apy reg i mens have shown to pro long sur vival, re lieve symp toms, and im prove the qual ity of life in chemo-naive ad vanced NSCLC pa tients in a good per for mance sta tus. How ever, the role of cisplatin in the sec ond-line treat ment of NSCLC is less clear. The ef fi cacy of vinorelbine treat ment in the sec ond-line set ting for NSCLC has been dis ap point ing. How ever, a re cent small phase II study showed the ef fec tive ness of vinorelbine plus cisplatin treat ment in pa tients pre vi ously treated with paclitaxel and gemcitabine.