Weekly Topotecan for Recurrent Small Cell Lung Cancer - a Retrospective Anatolian Medical Oncology Group Study

Aim: To evaluate efficacy and tolerability of topotecan treatment for recurrent small cell lung carcinoma.Patients and
Methods: A total of 62 patients were evaluated retrospectively. Statistical analysis was performedusing GraphPad Instat (version 3.05).
Results: DFifty five of patients (89%) were male and 7 (11%) were female.Median age was 56.7±9.3 (34-75). Forty eight of patients (80%) were extensive stage (ES) at the time of diagnosis.Fifty of the patients (80.6 Medical Oncology Clinic) were given median 5.36 cycles of cisplatin-etoposide (2-8 cycles).Time to recurrence was 15.6±6.13 weeks in patients with limited stage (LS) and 6.3±3.82 weeks in extensivestage (ES) (p<0.0001). Overall survival was 14.0±6.08 months in ES and 17.9±6.88 months in LS. The differencebetween two groups was statistically meaningful (p=0.0447). The overall survival of the patients was 14.8±6.43months (4.5-40 months). In terms of survival, there was no difference between males and females (p=0.1171).In 17 (27%) patients who were refractory to topotecan or in whom progression occurred other chemotherapieswere used.
Conclusion: Small cell lung cancer is chemosensitive, but recurrences occur in short time. Otherchemotherapy regimens are used in progression. Topotecan is one of them. Patients who were young and in whomrecurrences occur late had given better response to topotecan. Because of the retrospective nature of the study,we couldn’t reach the records exactly and consequently, rate and duration of response couldn’t be calculated.In recurrent SCLC topotecan is one of the treatment choices. But both hematological and non hematologicalside effects should be taken into consideration.