Paclitaxel is highly beneficial anticancer drug for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and has shown remarkable radiosensitizing effect in vitro. We evaluated whether concurrent chemoradiation therapy with weekly paclitaxel (60 mg/m²) could be tolerated and effective in the treatment of locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Twenty-two stage III (IIIA:6, IIIB:16) NSCLC patients were treated with weekly administration of paclitaxel (60 mg/m²) on days 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, and 36 in addition to concurrent radiation therapy of 54 Gy. After the initial phase of concurrent chemoradiation, patients received additional two cycles of consolidation chemotherapy with paclitaxel (175mg/m²)/cisplatin (75 mg/m²) or paclitaxel (175 mg/m²)/carboplatin (6AUC) every 3 weeks.

Overall response rate was 81.8% (18/22) with 9.1% (2/22) of complete response and 72.7% (16/22) of partial response rate. Two patients (9.1%) died of chemoradiation-induced pneumonitis after completion of therapy. In total, grade 3 toxicities included pneumonitis (22.7%), esophagitis (22.7%), neuropathy (13.6%), and neutropenia (13.6%). The median survival time was 15 months and 2-year overall survival were 31.8%.

Concurrent chemoradiation therapy with weekly paclitaxel in locally advanced NSCLC showed good local response, but survival rate was not completely satisfactory due to potentially fatal chemoradiati1on-induced pneumonitis.