Intensive chemotherapy with whole blood stem-cell support and concurrent chest radiotherapy in small cell lung cancer: a phase I/II trial

Abstract Intensive chemotherapy combined with chest radiation may ameliorate survival in small cell lung cancer (SCLC). In a prospective study, we treated 18 patients with limited SCLC with an intensive sequential single agent (ifosfamide, carboplatin, etoposide and paclitaxel, (ICE-T)) chemotherapy with the support of unprocessed stem-cell enriched whole blood and G-CSF and concomitant bi-fractionated chest radiotherapy (60 Gy). The treatment was delivered in a short time of 10 weeks. The results were compared with an historical patient group treated with six cycles of standard chemotherapy of etoposide and cisplatin and concomitant chest radiotherapy. After a 3-year median follow up, the 2-year progression free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) are 54 and 63% in the ICE-T group, respectively. In the control group, median PFS and OS were 13 and 17 months and the 2-year PFS and OS were 32% ( P =0.20) and 47% ( P =0.25), respectively. This short and intensive chemo-radiotherapy regimen is well tolerated and induces promising survival results. The use of stem cell enriched whole blood should be investigated in larger randomized studies.