People with high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung face a tough choice after surgery. They need a second treatment to stop the cancer from coming back. Doctors compared two common drug combinations to see which one worked better. One group got irinotecan plus cisplatin. The other group got etoposide plus cisplatin. Both groups had similar results after five years.
The study followed 221 patients. At three years, 71.8 percent of those on irinotecan were free of relapse. That number was 68.5 percent for those on etoposide. At five years, the numbers were 65.2 percent and 65.7 percent respectively. The difference between the two groups was not significant.
Overall survival rates were also very close. Eighty-three point six percent of patients on irinotecan were alive at three years. That compared to eighty-five point six percent on etoposide. By five years, survival was seventy-two point four percent versus seventy-three point five percent. The study did not report specific side effects or safety issues.
However, the study has a limitation. Only seventy-five point six percent of the diagnoses matched between the local hospitals and the central review team. This means some patient data might not have been perfectly consistent across all sites involved in the trial.
