Non-platinum-based paclitaxel combinations in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

Patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer benefit mainly from chemotherapy using cisplatin (Platinol)-based combinations. Platinum compounds, however, due to their toxicity profile, have limited use in combination with many cytoxic drugs. Paclitaxel (Taxol) is one of the most active cytoxic drugs available for chemonaive patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, yielding response rates of about 20% to 25%. Paclitaxel has been combined with other agents active in this disease with the aim of producing synergistic, or additional, antitumor activity with better tolerance. Several of these combinations are described in this article. The most promising of these appears to be paclitaxel and etoposide.