PurposeA randomized phase II trial of two novel treatment strategies in the first-line management of advanced non–small-cell lung cancer patients with performance status (PS) 2.Patients and MethodsPatients were assigned to docetaxel 30 mg/m2on days 1, 8, and 15 every 28 days in combination with either cetuximab 400 mg/m2loading dose followed by 250 mg/m2weekly (D + C) or bortezomib 1.6 mg/m2on days 1, 8, and 15 every 28 days (D + B) for up to 4 cycles. Patients with responding or stable disease continued cetuximab or bortezomib until progression. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS) rate at 6 months.ResultsSixty-four patients were enrolled and 59 were included in this analysis. Complete or partial response rates were 13.3% and 10.3% for D + C and D + B, respectively. Median PFS was 3.4 months in the D + C arm and 1.9 months in the D + B arm. Corresponding figures for 6-month PFS were 27.8% and 13.8% and 5.0 and 3.9 months for median survival, respectively. Grade 3/4 hematologic toxicity was 16% for D + C and 21% for D + B, whereas nonhematologic toxicities were observed in 63% and 44% of patients, respectively. There was one treatment-related death in each arm.ConclusionThese results confirm the poor prognosis associated with a PS of 2 and the difficulty in translating recent advances in targeted therapy to this subset of patients. While the results in the D + C arm are numerically superior, neither combination met the prespecified PFS end point to justify further research in this setting.
Randomized Phase II Trial of Docetaxel Plus Cetuximab or Docetaxel Plus Bortezomib in Patients With Advanced Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer and a Performance Status of 2: CALGB 30402
