Outcome of Daily Cisplatin with Thoracic Chemoradiotherapy in Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Comorbid Disorders: a Pilot Study

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Lung cancer is the most common cancer in males worldwide. The principal mode of treatment inthe early stage of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is surgery. However, five-year survival is only about 15%for all stages. The aim is to investigate the effect of daily low dose cisplatin concurrently with radiation therapyin advanced NSCLC patients with poor performance status. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: Ten patients diagnosed asinoperable Stage IIIB NSCLC with comorbid disease were assessed retrospectively in Bezmialem Vakif University,Faculty of Medicine, Department of Radiation Oncology, between 2011 to 2013. ECOG performance status wasbetween 3 and 4. Cisplatin was administered at 6mg/m2 daily, for 5 days a week concurrently with radiotherapyusing 160-200 cGy daily fractions, 54 Gy being the lowest and 63 Gy being the highest dose. <br/><b>Results</b>: Completeresponse at the primary tumour site was obtained in 20% patients. Grade I esophagitis was seen 70 percent ofpatients, and the grade II haematological toxicity rate was 20 %. Median survival time was 7 months. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>:Median survival time was reasonable, despite the patients ECOG performance status of 3-4, which is similar togroups even without comorbid disorders in comparison to other published papers in the literature. Acceptabletoxicity, high response rates and quality of life of patients are the other favourable features.