Amrubicin plus Cisplatin for Extensive-Stage Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Treatments for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) have not changed over the last decade. In a prior phase I/II study involving Japanese patients with ES-SCLC, amrubicin — a synthetic anthracycline that inhibits topoisomerase II — demonstrated response and survival benefits when combined with cisplatin (Ann Oncol 2005; 16:430). The combination also resulted in markedly less diarrhea though more hematologic toxicity than that associated with irinotecan plus cisplatin (IP), the standard treatment in Japan.

Now, these investigators have conducted a phase III, noninferiority trial to directly compare the use of amrubicin plus cisplatin (AP) versus (IP) in 284 chemotherapy-naive ES-SCLC patients at 15 treatment centers in Japan.

As ex…