[Adriamycin, cyclophosphamide and vincristine (ACO) in small cell bronchial cancer. Course of the disease and long-term follow-up].

This report summarizes our experience in 94 patients with inoperable small cell bronchogenic carcinoma treated with protocols "ACO I" and "ACO II" at the West German Tumor Center Essen. Long-term follow-up is documented for a group of 50 patients who were fully ambulatory. Complete responses were obtained in 20 of 26 patients with "limited disease" and in 12 of 24 patients with "extensive disease". The median survival of all 50 patients was 12 months (10 months in "extensive disease", 21 months in "limited disease"). An analysis of relapse patterns indicated that the local intrathoracal recurrence, especially in patients with "limited disease", remains one of the main problems. The report also includes a detailed analysis of long-term survivors. With the "ACO II" protocol which is designed to study the value of maintenance therapy after aggressive induction treatment in patients with complete response, 44 patients have thus far been evaluated for response (CR 50%). The number of patients randomized for maintenance chemotherapy is still too small to draw further conclusions at this point.