Pemetrexed for heavily pretreated patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The efficacy and safety of chemotherapy as third- or higher-line therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pemetrexed for heavily pretreated, advanced NSCLC.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed advanced NSCLC patients who received pemetrexed and more than two prior chemotherapy regimens. The tumor responses were evaluated by the Response Evaluation Criteria of Solid Tumors. Progression-free survival and overall survival were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Toxicity was evaluated according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 3.0.

RESULTS

A total of 95 patients (53 men and 42 women) were included. The median age was 63 years (range, 29-83). Seventy (73.7%) patients had adenocarcinoma. The median number of prior systemic therapies was three (range, 2-7). The median number of cycles of pemetrexed therapy was four (range, 1-11). Seven (7.4%) patients achieved a partial response, and 33 (34.7%) had stable disease. The median progression-free survival was 11 6 days, and the median overall survival was 382 days. A trend toward increased progression-free survival was observed for patients who had non-squamous compared with squamous NSCLC.

CONCLUSION

Pemetrexed has modest efficacy for heavily pretreated NSCLC patients.