In a nutshell
This study looked at the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drug nedaplatin (Aqupla) to treat specific types of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The authors concluded that nedaplatin was effective at treating patients with squamous cell lung cancer.
Some background
Targeted therapy has improved the outcome of certain types of NSCLC however this treatment is not suitable for every patient. Therefore chemotherapy is the first line treatment for these other patients. Nedaplatin was introduced with the objective to be more effective than other chemotherapy drugs. It remains unknown however whether this is specific for certain types of NSCLC.
Methods & findings
This review compared the effectiveness of nedaplatin for treating squamous cell NSCLC and non-squamous cell NSCLC. Here, the authors reviewed 12 studies with a combined 867 patients describing the effectiveness of nedaplatin.
Overall, the objective response rate (ORR, percent of patients with tumor size reduction) for patients with squamous cell lung cancer was 55.6%. ORR for patients with non-squamous cell lung cancer was 34.4%. The odds of responding to treatment were 55% higher for patients with squamous cell lung cancer compared to non-squamous cell lung cancer.
The most common side effects were low levels of red and white blood cells, low levels of platelets (blood cells involved in clotting), nausea, lack of apppetite, and liver damage.
Combining nedaplatin with a taxane drug such as docetaxel (Taxotere) or paclitaxel (Taxol) increased overall survival (time from beginning treatment until death) and time to disease progression compared to other combinations.
The bottom line
The authors concluded that nedaplatin was more effective at treating squamous cell lung cancer than non-squamous cell lung cancer. They also state that different combinations of nedaplatin may be more beneficial than others and therefore require more research.
Published By :
Oncotarget
Date :
Sep 15, 2017
