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The efficacy and safety of chemotherapy for patients with lung cancer who are in need of intensive care, such as invasive mechanical ventilation, have not been established.A 59-year-old woman consulted a doctor with complaints of dyspnea.She was intubated because of acute respiratory failure and transferred to our hospital.Enhanced CT images revealed advanced stenosis of her trachea due to a bulky mediastinal tumor.Cervical lymph node biopsy was performed, and she was diagnosed with mediastinal small cell lung cancer.She received combination chemotherapy with carboplatin and etoposide along with invasive mechanical ventilation.Chemotherapy was effective, and extubation was performed under careful bronchoscopic observation.Her general condition improved gradually, and she was discharged from our hospital on foot with ambulatory chemotherapy.Even though patients with lung cancer develop respiratory failure and need invasive mechanical ventilation, they may be treated with effective chemotherapy and may be weaned from ventilation.

A standard therapy is not established for locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC)complicated with chronic renal failure, although some cases of the disease have been reported. We report a case of a locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the lung, complicated with chronic renal failure. He was successfully treated with weekly docetaxel(DOC)and concurrent thoracic radiotherapy, and no deterioration of renal function was observed. In locally advanced NSCLC complicated with renal dysfunction, treatment with weekly DOC and concurrent thoracic radiotherapy is considered to be a therapeutic option. Since radiation pneumonitis occurred in the present case, the accumulation and precise analysis of applicable cases is an important subject for future consideration.

Gefitinib has a modest activity in previously treated patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the efficacy and safety of gefitinib monotherapy in untreated advanced NSCLC is not known. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 12 patients of NSCLC who were unfit or refused cytotoxic chemotherapy, and were treated with a single-agent gefitinib as first-line therapy in our hospital. The patients were 6 males and 6 females. The median age was 76.5 years (range 34-82). The histological types were adenocarcinoma in all patients. Clinical stage was IIB in one patient, IIIB in four, and IV in seven. Five were elderly patients and four were patients with ECOG PS (performance status) 3. Five had partial response (PR), and two had stable disease (SD). The response rate was 41%. The median time to progression (TTP) was 126 days. Grade 1 diarrhea was observed in three patients, grade 1 or 2 eruption paronychia was in eight, and grade 1 or 2 liver dysfunction was in two. No grade 3 or 4 toxicities occurred. Gefitinib monotherapy may provide an opportunity for untreated NSCLC, particularly unsuitable patients with standard chemotherapy. Prospective studies of gefitinib monotherapy as first-line treatment are warranted.