Abstract

Although the effectiveness of chemotherapy in the treatment small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) has been reported previously, there is not a definite agreement on an ideal treatment regimen. In this study, 153 patients with SCLC (142 men, 79 with limited, 74 with disseminated disease) who received at least three cycles of chemotherapy (CT) were evaluated. The median age was 59 (29-79). Among these cases, 153 patients who were followed up regularly and given at least three cycles of CT treatment were evaluated retrospectively to determine the effectiveness of the treatment regimens. In these patients median survival time (ST) was found to be 13.6 months and 2-5 year survival rates were found to be 25% and 5% respectively. Complete remission was obtained in 26%, partial remission was obtained in 46% of patients at the end of CT. When alternate CAV/EP CT regimen was compared to other CAV, CAE and EP CT regimens with regard to median ST and survival rate, it was not found to be more effective (p=0.94). In conclusion, we observed that changes in CT regimens resulted in very small differences in prognosis of SCLC patients. When etoposide is included in CT regimen, there is an improvement in ST but not statistically significant.