Phase II study of vinorelbine and docetaxel in the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer as frontline and second-line therapy.

OBJECTIVES

Combination chemotherapy with third-generation, nonplatinum agents (ie, gemcitabine, vinorelbine, taxanes, or camptothecins) represents a well-tolerated frontline treatment option for metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer and might play a role as salvage therapy as well. The aim of this phase 2 study was to investigate the use of docetaxel and vinorelbine in the frontline and second-line setting in patients with incurable non-small-cell lung cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Seventy-eight patients (42 untreated, 36 previously treated) were administered vinorelbine (20 mg/m) on days 1 and 8 and docetaxel (75 mg/m for untreated patients; 60 mg/m for previously treated patients for cycle 1, increased to 75 mg/m for the subsequent cycles in the absence of grade 3 fever/neutropenia) on day 8, repeated every 21 days, with routine filgrastim support.

RESULTS

The most common grade 3 to 4 nonhematologic toxicities were diarrhea, dyspnea, fatigue, and nausea/vomiting (5% each). Grade 3 to 4 granulocytopenia occurred in 55% of the patients, however only 5% experienced febrile neutropenia. Response rates were 13% in the chemotherapy-naive cohort and 9% in previously treated patients. Median time to progression was 2.9 and 3.0 months and median overall survival was 15.0 and 6.2 months, for the frontline and second-line patients, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Compared with historical controls, in the first-line setting, the combination of docetaxel and vinorelbine did not demonstrate increased efficacy advantages over platinum- or other nonplatinum-based doublets. In the second-line setting, single agent chemotherapy is as effective as, and less toxic than the docetaxel-vinorelbine combination, and the former remains the cytotoxic treatment of choice.