Phase 3 Study of Etoposide, Cisplatin, and Radiotherapy Versus Paclitaxel, Carboplatin and Radiotherapy in Patients With Unresectable Locally Advanced, Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy given concurrently with radiotherapy is the standard of care for patients with inoperable stage III NSCLC. The most common chemotherapeutic agents used concurrently with radiotherapy have been vinorelbine, vinblastine, and etoposide in conjunction with cisplatin or weekly paclitaxel and carboplatin. No randomized phase III trials of concurrent chemoradiotherapy have shown the superiority of one chemotherapy regimen over another. The clinical trial is to compare radiotherapy concurrently with PE (etoposide and cisplatin) and PC (paclitaxel and carbplatin) for local advanced NSCLC (stage IIIA/IIIB). It is a randomized, multicenter, open labeled phase III clinical trial. All patients receive conformal radiotherapy or intensity modulated radiotherapy with conventional fraction. The chemotherapy regimens are PE (etoposide 50mg/m2 d1-5, 29-33 and cisplatin 50mg/m2 d1,8,29 and 36 29-33 ) and PC (paclitaxel 45mg/m2 weekly over 1hour and carbplatin AUC =2mg/mL/min over 30min weekly). The primary purpose is to evaluate objective response rate, complications, progression-free survival, overall survival. The second purpose is to evaluate quality of life and cost.