Overall survival was significantly longer with nedaplatin plus docetaxel than with cisplatin plus docetaxel in previously untreated patients with advanced or relapsed squamous cell lung carcinoma, a new study published online ahead of print in the journal The Lancet Oncology has shown.1

Because nedaplatin, a derivative of cisplatin, in combination with docetaxel, has shown promising activity for advanced squamous cell lung carcinoma in a previous phase 1/2 study, researchers sought to compare nedaplatin with cisplatin plus docetaxel to investigate the impact on overall survival.

For the multicenter, open-label, phase 3 study, researchers enrolled 355 patients with pathologically proven squamous cell lung cancer with stage 3B/4 or postoperative recurrence who had not received previous chemotherapy or developed recurrent disease more than 1 year after previous adjuvant chemotherapy.

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Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 to nedaplatin 100 mg/m2 plus docetaxel 60 mg/m2 intravenously or cisplatin 80 mg/m2 and docetaxel 60 mg/m2 every 3 weeks for 4 to 6 cycles.

Results showed that among 349 evaluable patients, median overall survival was 13.6 months (95% CI, 11.6 – 15.6) with nedaplatin and 11.4 months (95% CI, 10.2 – 12.2) with cisplatin (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.65 – 1.02; P = .037), demonstrating a significant difference between the 2 treatment arms.

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In regard to safety, grade 3 or higher nausea, fatigue, hyponatremia, and hypokalemia were more common in the cisplatin treatment arm than the nedaplatin group; however, grade 3 or higher leukopenia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia were more frequent in the nedaplatin arm. Of note, 4 treatment-related deaths occurred in the nedaplatin group and 3 occurred in the cisplatin group.

“Nedaplatin plus docetaxel could be a new treatment option for advanced or relapsed squamous cell lung cancer,” the authors concluded.

Reference

  1. Shukuya T, Yamanaka T, Seto T, et al. Nedaplatin plus docetaxel versus cisplatin plus docetaxel for advanced or relapsed squamous cell carcinoma of the lung (WJOG5208L): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial [published online ahead of print October 27, 2015]. Lancet Oncol. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(15)00305-8.

Topics:

Lung Cancer