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A randomized study of irradiation and vinblastine in lung cancer
Author(s) -
Coy Peter
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(197010)26:4<803::aid-cncr2820260410>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - vinblastine , medicine , lung cancer , bronchogenic carcinoma , chemotherapy , disease , lung , cancer , surgery , carcinoma , oncology
Abstract A study was made to investigate the possibility that cobalt irradiation would be more effective with the addition of concurrent chemotherapy with intravenous vinblastine. Patients under 70 years of age with histologically or cytologically verified bronchogenic carcinoma not amenable to surgical treatment or with residual disease after surgery were allocated randomly to 2 treatment regimens. Half the patients were treated with cobalt irradiation alone, the others with cobalt irradiation and intravenous vinblastine. Survival up to 2 years gave no evidence of an improvement and neither did measurement of such factors as tumor size and symptoms. It is recognized that the parameters used in this study and, particularly, in patients with lung cancer leave much to be desired if any difference in response to treatment of differing kinds is to be shown in a statistically significant manner with relatively small numbers of patients. This is because the parameters chosen are difficult to measure and because the prognosis in lung cancer is often determined by disease beyond the treated area.