Post study docetaxel in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after discontinuation from a randomized phase III trial of pemetrexed versus docetaxel: An exploratory analysis

7135 Background: For NSCLC pts with good performance status, second-line treatment with chemotherapy improves survival. Routine administration of second-line chemotherapy has increased the percentage of pts receiving third-line therapy. In a recent multicenter, randomized, phase III comparison of pemetrexed versus docetaxel in previously treated pts with advanced NSCLC, survival time with pemetrexed therapy was similar to docetaxel (median 8.3 vs 7.9 months). Over 40% of pts in the study received third-line chemotherapy post study. Of those pts treated with pemetrexed, 32% received docetaxel post study. The aim of this exploratory analysis was to evaluate if the survival observed in the pemetrexed arm was due to a cross-over effect of post study chemotherapy with docetaxel as opposed to other post study chemotherapy agents. Methods: Survival analyses were performed using Kaplan-Meier method in 3 subsets of patients with respect to their post study treatment. Results: In total, 541 pts received either peme...