[Lung toxicity of trimodality chemoradiotherapy with mitomycin C, vindesine, and cisplatin followed by surgery for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer].

To evaluate lung toxicity of mitomycin C containing chemotherapy regimen combined with thoracic radiotherapy, a retrospective study was carried out in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer who were enrolled in a randomized trial for chemoradiotherapy. Postoperative complications and pathological pulmonary toxicity were investigated in 7 surgical patients out of 306 enrolled patients who were treated with MVP combination chemotherapy and concurrent or sequential thoracic radiotherapy of 56 Gy. The 7 patients were 45-66 years old (median 50 years old), with 4 of stage IIIA, 3 of stage IIIB, 4 with adenocarcinoma, 2 with squamous cell carcinoma, and 1 with large cell carcinoma. Five patients were treated with 2 cycles and 2 with 3 cycles. Anti-tumor response was observed to be PR in 6 cases and NC in 1 case. In the chemoradiotherapy, pulmonary toxicity was observed at grade 1 in only 1 case. Postoperative complications consisted of a ruptured suture, chylothorax and empyema which were treated and healed in the 3 cases respectively. Pathological examination of the resected lung was performed in 6 cases, with revealed alveolitis in 3 cases and fibrosis in all cases in the radiation field. Three cases, however, showed slight alveolitis outside of the radiation field. In conclusion, as severe lung toxicity was not observed in the surgical cases after chemoradiotherapy including MMC, there appears to be no reason to exclude MMC from regimens for trimodality combination therapy.