Number of cycles of chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung caner: Efficacy and relationship with histology.

Abstract

e18125 Background: Platinum based regimens are standard first-line treatment in patients with advanced non mall cell lung cancer. We intend to evaluate their effectiveness according to the number of cycles administered, and investigate whether histology is a predictor of benefit from a greater number of infusions. Methods: 124 patients with stage IV NSCLC were evaluated retrospectively. They were divided according to whether they made 4 or 6 cycles of chemotherapy. The schemes used were: Cisplatin / Gemcitabine and Carboplatin / Paclitaxel, at standard doses. We studied the efficacy in both groups according to the most common histologies (adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma). PFS (progression-free survival) and OS (overall survival) were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier curves and compared by the Log Rank Test. Results: Those who underwent 4 cycles had a PFS of 7.77 months and OS of 12.2 months vs. 8.64 and 10.8 months those who received 6 cycles (p = 0.47, p = 0.76). Within the subgroup with squamous histology (n = 43), PFS and OS were 7.38 and 13.38 months respectively in the group that received 4 cycles vs. 7.97 and 9.76 months in those receiving 6 (p = 0.70, p = 0.32 ). Within adenocarcinoma histology (n = 81), those who received 4 cycle, has a PFS of 8.17 months and they lived 11.56 month, vs 8.96 and 10.79 months for those receiving 6 cycles (p = 0.29, p = 0.88) Conclusions: In our population, a greater number of cycles showed no advantages in terms of progression-free survival or overall survival. Histology is not a predictive factor for deciding how many chemotherapy cycles administer.