Background: The purpose of this epidemiologic survey was to describe the management of second-line therapy for patients with stage IIIB-IV non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) following docetaxel-cisplatin as first-line therapy.
Methods: Between June 2003 and December 2004, 265 patients were enrolled. The data registered were the choice of cytotoxics, the safety profile, the efficacy and the clinical benefit.
Results: Two hundred and sixty one patients were treated with docetaxel-cisplatin as a first-line regimen and 181 received a second line. This second line was a single agent regimen in 58% of cases and a gemcitabine based treatment in 60.8%. The main criterion for the choice of second-line therapy was the safety profile in 34.3% of cases. The overall response rate was 16.6% after the second line and clinical benefit was reported in 43.6% of patients.
Conclusion: In more than 2/3 of patients with NSCLC the docetaxel-cisplatin combination leaves the opportunity to give a second-line treatment, providing satisfying results in terms of clinical benefit. In this study gemcitabine was the most widely prescribed second-line treatment, mainly as a single agent.