Researchers affiliated with the Late Adjuvant Cisplatin Evaluation (LACE vinorelbine project) have reported that adjuvant Platinol® (cisplatin) plus Navelbine® (vinorelbine) improves survival among patients with completely resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These data from pooled analyses were presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).

Adjuvant chemotherapy has become the new standard of treatment in the management of NSCLC.  Several studies presented over the past 2 years indicate a significant survival advantage with this approach. A previous large randomized trial of adjuvant Platinol and Navelbine showed a significant improvement in survival of stage II and IIIA disease, but not for stage IB patients (see related news).

The current study was a meta-analysis of data including nearly 1,888 patients with early lung cancer who had enrolled in four different clinical trials. All participants had complete surgical resection. Patients were then treated with either adjuvant Platinol/Navelbine or no chemotherapy following surgery. The median follow-up of this study was 5.1 years.

• At five years, 55% of patients who were treated with chemotherapy were alive, compared with only 46% of patients who received no further treatment.
• The patients benefiting most from chemotherapy were those with more advanced disease (Stages II-III).

The researchers concluded that adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of Platinol/Navelbine improved 5-year disease-free survival by 10.3% and overall survival by 7.8%.

Comments:  These data confirm the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II and IIIA NSCLC and probably stage I, although the benefit was less.

Reference: Douillard J-Y, et al. Lung Adjuvant Cisplatin Evaluation (Lace Vinorelbine Project): Pooled Analysis of Adjuvant Vinorelbine-Cisplatin Trials for Completely Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). Proceedings of the 31st Annual European Society for Medical Oncology Congress. Istanbul, Turkey. 2006. Abstract #7100.

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