Failure of intensive combination therapy (cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, 5-fluorouracil) to control adenocarcinoma or large-cell anaplastic carcinoma of lung.

Eleven patients with advanced adenocarcinoma of lung and six patients with large cell anaplastic carcinoma of lung were treated with combination chemotherapy using cyclophosphamide 1 g/m2 i.v., adriamycin 30 mg/m2 and 5-FU 500 mg/m2 i.v. on days 1 and 8, of a 28 day cycle. In neither group did any patient achieve a complete remission; 1 patient achieved a partial response in each group, and the rest showed no evidence of response. The duration of survival of the responding patients in each group was not significantly longer than those of the non-responders. Toxicity and side effects were considerable in all patients. This study demonstrates that these tumour types are refractory to this form of intensive combination chemotherapy. A literature review suggests that other forms of combination chemotherapy are usually equally ineffective.