[Combined chemotherapy after prolonged oral etoposide maintenance therapy in patients with small-cell lung cancer].

The authors have reported the results of induction, and maintenance therapy of 36 patients suffering from small-cell lung cancer. The induction chemotherapy with cisplatin and etoposide proved to be successful in 34 cases out of the 36 patients. The patients were divided in two groups following the induction treatment: with 17 patients no further chemotherapy happened. The other 17 patients received maintenance cytotoxic treatment with prolonged oral etoposide. There was a significant increase in the average survival time in cases of patients who received maintenance therapy (p < 0.001). The average survival of these patients was 908.4 days, while that of the patients of the control group proved to be 404.5 days.