Prolonged Administration of Oral Etoposide in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Phase II Trial

Purpose: The trial was undertaken to investigate the activity and toxicity of a prolonged schedule of oral etoposide in the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients and Methods: Between March 1989 and Au-gust 1990, 25 patients with advanced NSCLC were treated with oral etoposide 50 mg/m'/d for 21 consecutive days, repeated every 28 to 35 days. The median patient age was 60 years (range, 38 to 84 years); male:female ratio was 12:13. Eight patients had stage IIIB disease; 17 had stage IV. Seventy-six percent of patients had Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 or 1. No patient had received previous chemotherapy with standard agents; nine patients had received previ-ous or concurrent radiation therapy. Plasma etoposid