[Chemotherapy of the non-small cell carcinoma of the lung with ifosfamide and cisplatin].

80 patients with inoperable non-small cell bronchial carcinoma were treated, at an interval of 4 weeks between them, with ifosfamide (2 g/m2 on days 1-5) and cisplatin (75 mg/m2, day 1). All diagnoses had been confirmed histologically. The course of 72 patients (36 with squamous carcinoma, 25 with adenocarcinoma, two with alveolar-cell carcinoma and nine with large-cell carcinoma) could be evaluated. There were four complete and 21 partial remissions (response rate 35%). In a further 14 patients temporary arrest of tumor growth was registered. Median survival time of all patients was 8.3 months, for those with complete and partial remission 11.5 months. Patients in whom the tumor progressed lived on average 3.9 months. Age and general state of the patients, as well as histological tumor type, had no influence on the results of treatment. Patients in stage IV lived, at seven months, significantly less long than those with only loco-regional spread (11 months). Main side-effects were vomiting, bone-marrow depression and neuropathy. Urotoxicity was not significant, as a result of treatment with mesna. Remission rate and survival time of these patients corresponded with the results obtained with other cisplatin combinations.