Alternated approach with local irradiation and combination chemotherapy including cisplatin or carboplatin plus epirubicin and etoposide in intermediate stage non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Prognosis of unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients is disappointing; their median survival time does not exceed 8-12 months. Recently, some authors reported an increased response rate and sometimes a prolonged survival for patients with intrathoracic disease treated with local irradiation combined with cytotoxic drugs.

Methods: Fifty-eight consecutive patients with Stage IIIA or IIIB NSCLC were enrolled in a randomized Phase II trial of alternated treatment composed of four courses of combination chemotherapy and three cycles of local irradiation.