Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Since the poor outcome for advanced lung cancer with first-line chemotherapy, more efforts should be paid for treatment of advanced recurrent or metastasis non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Pemetrexed, as a multi-target antifolate chemotherapeutic drug, was approved for the second-line treatment of advanced NSCLC. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and side effects of pemetrexed combined with cisplatin/carboplatin in the treatment of advanced recurrent or metastasis NSCLC. METHODS: Sixty-three advanced recurrent or metastasis NSCLC patients confirmed with pathology or cytology were enrolled in this study. Among them, 40 cases were male and 23 were female, with 62 years of median age. The combination regimen was patients received pemetrexed 500 mg/m² on day 1 and cisplatin 30 mg/m² on day 1, day 2 and day 3 or carboplatin 300 mg/m² on day 1 by intravenous infusion, with 21 days as one cycle. All patients who received 2 or more cycles could be evaluated. RESULTS: Only 1 case got complete response, with 5 cases partial response, 36 stable and 21 cases progressive. The overall control rate was 66.7% (42/63). The median survival time was 9.0 months, while the median progression-free survival was 5.0 months (3.0 months in squamous cell carcinoma; 5.5 months in adenocarcinoma). There was a significant difference between squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma (P=0.017). The common adverse effects were leucopenia, anemia and gastrointestinal response. CONCLUSIONS: Pemetrexed combined with cisplatin/carboplatin is effective and feasible for advanced recurrent or metastasis NSCLC.