Efficacy of S-1 monotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer after the failure of two or more prior chemotherapy regimens

Predictive role of CYFRA 21-1 for S-1 monotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer patients

BACKGROUND

S-1, an oral fluoropyrimidine derivative, is widely used for the treatment of several solid tumors. However, there are no predictive markers for its effectiveness.

METHODS

We retrospectively screened 108 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated via S-1 monotherapy and investigated its relationship with cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA 21-1) and CEA pretreatment levels.

RESULTS

Sixty-one patients with high CYFRA 21-1 levels had a statistically significant shorter progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) than 46 patients with normal levels (median PFS = 42 days vs. 70 days, respectively; p = 0.0014; median OS = 197 days vs. 316 days, respectively, p = 0.0239).

CONCLUSIONS

Serum CYFRA 21-1 levels have predictive and prognostic roles in the management of patients with advanced NSCLC on S-1 monotherapy.

Safety of apatinib plus S-1 for advanced solid tumor as palliative treatment

The aim of the present study was to explore the safety of apatinib plus S-1 in treating advanced solid tumors after failure of two or more lines of chemotherapy. A total of 33 patients with advanced cancer treated between April 2016 to March 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Of these, 13 patients had non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 13 patients had SCLC, 4 patients had esophageal cancer and 3 had cervical cancer. All patients were treated with apatinib 250 mg once daily combined with S-1 60 mg/m2 twice daily for 14 days, repeated every 3 weeks. Adverse reactions were observed until aggravation of adverse reactions beyond the tolerable range or disease progression, and the survival rate and clinical benefits were calculated. The results suggested that the incidence rate of adverse effects (grade 3-4) was 45.5% (15/33). The top three severe adverse effects were hypertension (15.2%), thrombocytopenia (12.1%) and proteinuria (9.1%). A total of 2 patients with lung squamous-cell carcinomas died of severe pulmonary hemorrhage. Other adverse reactions were tolerated in the cohort. A total of 10 patients achieved partial response and the objective response rate was 30.3%. Furthermore, 13 patients achieved stable disease and 10 patients had progressive disease, and accordingly, the disease control rate was 72.7%. In conclusion, apatinib plus S-1 for advanced solid tumor patients as palliative treatment have a certain efficacy and was relatively safe but should be used with caution in patients with squamous-cell lung carcinoma and the efficacy and safety requires further assessment.

Phase II study of S-1 in patients with previously-treated invasive thymoma and thymic carcinoma: North Japan lung cancer study group trial 1203

OBJECTIVES

Invasive thymoma (IT) and thymic carcinoma (TC) are rare epithelial neoplasms arising in the anterior mediastinum. Platinum-based chemotherapies are widely used for first-line treatment of unresectable IT and TC, but no standard treatment has been established for previously-treated IT and TC thus far. Because promising efficacy of S-1 (tegafur, gimeracil and oteracil combination) has been reported in some retrospective studies, we conducted the first prospective phase II trial to evaluate its efficacy in previously-treated patients with advanced IT and TC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Patients progressing after at least one regimen of systemic chemotherapy received S-1 orally at a dose based on body surface area for 2 weeks followed by one week of rest until tumor progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was overall response rate (ORR) and secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and toxicity profile. We defined an ORR of 25% as indicating potential usefulness while ORR of 10% was the lower limit of interest.

RESULTS

Forty patients were enrolled (IT, n = 20; TC, n = 20). ORR was 17.5% (95% CI 7.3-32.8; IT, 10%; TC, 25%), disease control rate was 85% (IT, 95%; TC, 75%). Median PFS was 7.0 months (IT, 11.3 months; TC, 5.4 months), and median OS was 40.3 months (IT, 58.5 months; TC, 22.7 months) with a median follow-up of 51.9 months. Major toxicities (grade 3-4) were anorexia (10%), neutropenia (7.5%) and pneumonitis (5%). No treatment-related death was observed.

CONCLUSION

Although the primary endpoint was not met, S-1 monotherapy did have effects similar to recently reported immunotherapies for TC but at much lower cost. S-1 could represent a treatment option for previously-treated advanced TC. This trial was registered as UMIN 000008174.

[Efficacy of S-1 in Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Treated with More Than Two Lines of Chemotherapy]

BACKGROUND

There is no standard treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after the failure of two lines of chemotherapy, S-1 as the third generation of fluorouracil derivate with well safety and low toxicity, presented some efficacy in lung cancer treatment. The aim of this study is to explore the efficacy of S-1 for advanced NSCLC patients treated with two or more prior chemotherapy regimens.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective analysis of 105 NSCLC patients treated with S-1 monotherapy or S-1 contained chemotherapy as the third or more line of treatment in our hospital from January 2014 to April 2017. S-1 was administrated orally twice daily for 2 weeks, followed by one week of rest, the dose of drug was determined by body surface area (<1.25 m2, 80 mg/d; 1.25 m2-1.5 m2, 100 mg/d; ≥1.5 m2, 120 mg/d), platinum or the third-generation chemotherapy drugs could be combinedly used. Clinical response was assigned every cycle according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1, Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to estimate progression-free survival (PFS).

RESULTS

42 patients received S-1 monotherapy, the other 63 patients received combined regimens, the median treatment line was 4 (3-11) and the median treatment cycle was 2 (1-14). No complete response (CR) were observed, there were 4 patients with partial response (PR), 34 patients with stable disease (SD) and 67 patients with progressive disease (PD), the objective response rate (ORR) was 3.81%, disease control rate (DCR) was 36.19%. The median PFS was 1.90 months (0.67 months-10.83 months), no difference between monotherapy and combined group (DCR: 28.56% vs 41.27%, P=0.185), the liver metastasis showed poorer PFS (1.40 months vs 1.93 months , P=0.042).

CONCLUSIONS

S-1 presented some activity in advanced NSCLC treated with more than two lines of treatment. The addition of other drugs cannot improve efficacy. S-1 monotherapy can be used as a choice for heavily-treated patients.

Efficacy of fourth-line chemotherapy in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a systematic review and pooled analysis of published studies

There are no agents labelled for use as fourth-line therapy for non-small-cell lung cancer, even though it is currently prescribed in about 5-10% of patients. Here, we provide a pooled analysis of published studies on the efficacy of treatments in patients who have had at least three unsuccessful lines of therapy. The literature search was performed on Pubmed, EMBASE, the Web of Science, SCOPUS, CINAHL, Google Scholar and the Cochrane Library using the terms 'lung cancer' OR NSCLC AND 'fourth line'. The response rates and disease control rates were pooled using a random-effect or a fixed-effect model according to heterogeneity. Median progression-free survival and overall survival data were also collected and aggregated to obtain pooled median values of the included studies. Overall, 14 studies (673 patients), which were almost entirely published by Asian institutions, were eligible for this pooled analysis. Among these were two phase II trials and 12 retrospective cohort series. In general, the pooled overall response rate was 13.6% [95% confidence interval (CI) 10-18.3] and the pooled overall disease control rate was 47.3% (95% CI 38-56.9). The pooled median progression-free survival for these studies was 3.34 months (95% CI 2.42-4.27). The pooled median overall survival for these studies was 10.5 months (95% CI 9.57-11.52). In conclusion, for non-small-cell lung cancer patients who have undergone three or more unsuccessful lines of therapy, fourth-line treatment could be offered in select cases to those with a good performance status.

Phase II trial of S-1 as third-line or further chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

OBJECTIVES

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of S-1 in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), receiving two or more prior chemotherapy regimens.

METHODS

S-1 was administered orally for 14 consecutive days, followed by a 7-day rest period. This treatment course was repeated until disease progression or intolerable toxicity occurred.

RESULTS

From 2010 to 2012, 45 patients were enrolled in this study. Of the 45 patients, 4 patients [8.9 %, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.6-17.2 %] exhibited a partial response and 24 patients (53.3 %) exhibited stable disease. The disease control rate was 62.2 % (95 % CI 48.1-76.4 %). Median progression-free survival was 71 days, and median survival time was 205 days. Four patients had grade 3 hematological toxicities, but toxicities of grade 4 were not observed in this study.

CONCLUSION

Although S-1 monotherapy as third-line treatment or beyond was well tolerated, the response rate for this regimen did not demonstrate sufficient activity for patients with advanced NSCLC.

S-1 monotherapy for previously treated non-small cell lung cancer: A retrospective analysis by age and histopathological type

S-1, an oral fluoropyrimidine derivative, has been approved for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Japan. In the present study, the efficacy and safety of S-1 monotherapy for elderly patients with previously treated NSCLC were retrospectively evaluated, and the efficacy of S-1 monotherapy was compared by histopathological type. This retrospective study included 54 patients with advanced or recurrent NSCLC who had received S-1 monotherapy following the failure of previous chemotherapy regimens at our institutes. Patient outcomes were compared based on their age and histopathological type. S-1 was administered orally, twice daily, while the duration and interval were modified according to the medical condition of each patient. The default delivery schedule, the mean number of S-1 cycles, did not differ significantly between the two age groups (<70 and ≥70 years). The rate of therapy discontinuation, schedule modification or dose reduction due to intolerable toxicities or patient refusal was relatively frequent in the older group (40.7 and 55.6% for ages <70 and ≥70 years, respectively; p=0.414), and the incidence of grade 3 anemia was relatively high in the older group (3.7 and 18.5%, respectively; p=0.192). The response rates (13.0 and 4.8%, respectively; p=0.609) and disease control rates (39.1 and 33.3%, respectively; p=0.761) did not differ significantly between the two age groups. According to histopathological type, the disease control rate was significantly higher in adenocarcinoma (57.9%) compared to non-adenocarcinoma (20.0%, p=0.013). Thus, S-1 monotherapy may be equally effective and tolerated in patients <70 years and those ≥70 years. Additionally, adenocarcinoma may have a higher disease control rate than non-adenocarcinoma.