Pemetrexed for Heavily Pretreated Patients With Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Lee, Jih-Hsiang; Yu, Chong-Jen; Chen, Kuan-Yu; Shih, Jin-Yuan; Lin, Yu-Lin; Yang, Chih-Hsin

doi:10.1016/S0929-6646(10)60061-7

« Previous Next »Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 109, Issue 5 , Pages 338-344, May 2010

Pemetrexed for Heavily Pretreated Patients With Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Jih-Hsiang Lee
- Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- National Center of Excellence for Clinical Trial and Research, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Chong-Jen Yu
- Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Kuan-Yu Chen
- Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Jin-Yuan Shih
- Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Yu-Lin Lin
- Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Chih-Hsin Yang
- Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- National Center of Excellence for Clinical Trial and Research, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Oncology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Correspondence to: Dr Chih-Hsin Yang, Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, 7 Zhongshan South Road, Taipei, Taiwan

Received 9 April 2009; received in revised form 19 July 2009; accepted 10 August 2009.

Background/Purpose

The efficacy and safety of chemotherapy as third- or higher-line therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pemetrexed for heavily pretreated, advanced NSCLC.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed advanced NSCLC patients who received pemetrexed and more than two prior chemotherapy regimens. The tumor responses were evaluated by the Response Evaluation Criteria of Solid Tumors. Progression-free survival and overall survival were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Toxicity was evaluated according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 3.0.

Results

A total of 95 patients (53 men and 42 women) were included. The median age was 63 years (range, 29-83). Seventy (73.7%) patients had adenocarcinoma. The median number of prior systemic therapies was three (range, 2-7). The median number of cycles of pemetrexed therapy was four (range, 1-11). Seven (7.4%) patients achieved a partial response, and 33 (34.7%) had stable disease. The median progression-free survival was 11 6 days, and the median overall survival was 382 days. A trend toward increased progression-free survival was observed for patients who had non-squamous compared with squamous NSCLC.