High-intensity Chemotherapy Does Not Improve Survival In Small Cell Lung Cancer

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients treated with high-dose chemotherapy did not have better survival rates than those treated with standard doses, according to a randomized controlled trial published online April 8 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.SCLC accounts for nearly 13 percent of lung cancer cases in the United States. Although many patients with SCLC initially respond to chemotherapy, most suffer disease recurrence relatively quickly. Laboratory data suggest that increasing the dose of chemotherapy agents kills SCLC cells that were resistant to standard doses, and thus might improve patient survival. To test this possibility, Serge Leyvraz, M.D., of the University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, and colleague...