Search

Thymic carcinoma is a very rare neoplasm for which no optimal chemotherapeutic regimen has been established to date. Hence, we performed this study to investigate the efficacy and safety of carboplatin plus nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel as a first-line regimen for patients with advanced thymic carcinoma. We conducted this multi-institutional retrospective cohort study of patients with advanced thymic carcinoma who had received carboplatin plus nab-paclitaxel as a first-line chemotherapy between August 2013 and December 2021. Twelve patients were included in this study and were subjected to efficacy and safety analysis. Their median age was 62 years (range, 47-74 years), and all had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score of 0 or 1. After a median follow-up time of 19.7 months, the overall response rate was 50%; the median progression-free and overall survival times were 8.8 months and 23.3 months, respectively. Chemotherapy-related peripheral neuropathy was observed in 2 patients (16%; each with grade 1). Other toxicities were manageable, and there were no treatment-related deaths. Carboplatin plus nab-paclitaxel as a first-line chemotherapy regimen showed good efficacy and safety in patients with advanced thymic carcinoma., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: The optimal second and subsequent lines of chemotherapy for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have preexisting interstitial lung disease (ILD) are unclear. Hence, we examined the clinical efficacy and safety of second-line chemotherapy in such patients, including any exacerbation of preexisting ILD., Methods: The medical records of patients with NSCLC and preexisting ILD who received both first- and second-line chemotherapy were retrospectively reviewed., Results: Twenty-four patients with a median age of 71 years who were treated between April 2013 and March 2021 were included. The response rate after second-line chemotherapy with S-1 (n = 13), docetaxel (n = 8), pemetrexed (n = 2), or docetaxel plus ramucirumab (n = 1) was 12.5%, with a median progression-free survival (2nd line PFS) of 3.8 months. The overall survival from a start of first-line chemotherapy (1 st line OS) and post-progression survival (PPS) post-first-line chemotherapy were 18.7 and 9.7 months, respectively. Spearman rank correlation and linear regression analyses showed that PPS was strongly correlated with 1st line OS (R = 0.85, P < 0.00001). Importantly, the 2nd line PFS was also significantly correlated with 1st line OS (R = 0.71, P = 0.0001). While second-line chemotherapy-related acute exacerbation of ILD was observed in 7 patients (29.2%), there were no treatment-related fatalities. Conslusions. Second-line chemotherapy has a strong positive impact on the OS of patients with NSCLC who have preexisting ILD. Given the findings of this study, second-line chemotherapy may be valuable in terms of prolonging long-term OS., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)