A randomized placebo-controlled clinical study of nab-paclitaxel as second-line chemotherapy for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer in China

B ackground: We performed a randomized and placebo-controlled clinical study to investigate whether nab -paclitaxel can improve survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after unsuccessful first-line chemotherapy. M ethods: Patients with stage III to IV advanced NSCLC after first-line platinum-based chemotherapy failure were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive second-line treatment of nab -paclitaxel or placebo. R esults: 92 eligible patients were enrolled in the study. The median progression free survival (PFS) was 4.6 months (95% CI, 3.4-6.7 months) for nab -paclitaxel, versus 2.0 months (95% CI, 0.9-4.3 months) for placebo, representing a 56% reduction in disease progression (hazard ratio, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.33-0.81, P nab -paclitaxel, versus 4.9 months (95% CI, 2.1-5.9 months) for placebo, representing a 22% reduction in disease progression (hazard ratio, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.33-0.85, P nab -paclitaxel. C onclusions: Nab -paclitaxel can improve survival in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer after unsuccessful first-line chemotherapy