Small-cell lung carcinoma: survival after combination chemotherapy, radiotherapy or symptomatic treatment.

A retrospective comparison was made of the survival of patients with small-cell lung carcinoma treated by combination cytotoxic chemotherapy (CT), radiotherapy (RT) or symptomatic therapy alone (ST). Forty-three patients received CT and 42 patients of similar age and performance status each received RT or ST at the same group of hospitals. The median survival was 43 weeks with CT, 18 weeks with RT and 6 weeks with ST and 1 year survivals of 36%, 12% and 8% respectively were obtained. Despite the limitations of a retrospective study these results suggest that an improved survival with toxicity acceptable to most patients results from cytotoxic chemotherapy.