A Retrospective Study of the Novel Combination of Paclitaxel and S1 for Pretreated Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Background: Recently, multiple-line chemotherapy has become popular for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The survival time of patients is influenced by patient characteristics and subsequent treatments. Methods: The usefulness of paclitaxel plus S1 (PTX+S1) was evaluated in 46 pretreated NSCLC patients. Time from the start of individual regimens till the start of the next one (TNR) was calculated for regimens administered to the study population including PTX+S1 and analyzed by the shared frailty Cox model. Results: The response rate and the median progression-free survival time of PTX+S1 were 32.6% and 253 days, respectively. Substantial difference in TNR was observed in epidermal growth factor receptor mutation status and in line and type of regimens, but not in stage, age, sex, performance status and histology, by univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis revealed that PTX+S1 was only one factor to prolong TNR. Conclusion: Because of long progression-free survival and long TNR, further evaluation of PTX+S1 is necessary.