The role of second-line chemotherapy in small cell lung cancer: a retrospective analysis

Konstantinos Zarogoulidis,1 Efimia Boutsikou,1 Paul Zarogoulidis,1,2 Kaid Darwiche,2 Lutz Freitag,2 Konstantinos Porpodis,1 Dimitrios Latsios,1 Theodoros Kontakiotis,1 Haidong Huang,3,4 Qiang Li,4 Wolfgang Hohenforst-Schmidt,5 Maria Kipourou,1 J Francis Turner,6 Dionysios Spyratos11Pulmonary Department, “G Papanikolaou” General Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece; 2Department of Interventional Pneumology, Ruhrlandklinik, West German Lung Center, University Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; 3Bronchoscopy and Interventional Pulmonology, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital, Wayne State University, School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA; 4Department of Respiratory Diseases, Changhai Hospital/First Affiliated Hospital of the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 5II Medical Clinic, “Coburg” Regional Hospital, University of Wuerzburg, Coburg, Germany; 6Pulmonary Medicine, University of Nevada School of Medicine, National Supercomputing Center for Energy and the Environment University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USABackground: To evaluate the benefit of second-line chemotherapy with platinum-based treatment in patients with recurrent small cell lung cancer (SCLC).Patients and methods: A total of 535 patients continued with follow-up or best supportive care if needed, and 229 patients who progressed after the completion of first-line chemotherapy were treated with second-line chemotherapy at the time of progression. In total, 103/229 patients received paclitaxel 190 mg/m2 and carboplatin 5.5 area under the curve while 126/229 patients received etoposide 200 mg/m2 and carboplatin 5.5 area under the curve every 28 days.Results: Patients administered second-line chemotherapy lived significantly longer, with a median survival of 422 days compared to 228 days in patients with best supportive care alone (P