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Vol.39 No.7 contents | Japanese/English |
- Review -
Gemcitabine in the Treatment of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
Akira YokoyamaDepartment of Internal Medicine, Niigata Cancer Center Hospital
Gemcitabine hydrochloride, a novel antitumor agent, is a nucleoside analogue which is a competitive deoxycytidine inhibitor in DNA synthesis. The efficacy of gemcitabine has been evaluated in numerous clinical trials in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in many countries. In those studies, gemcitabine monotherapy produced a high response rate of over 20% and was well tolerated. The main adverse reactions were myelosuppression and mild non-hematologic toxicities. Furthermore gemcitabine produced better treatment results than monotherapy in combination with cisplatin which is the key drug for NSCLC. In randomized trials, single-agent gemcitabine was as effective as an established combination regimen and was more effective than that regimen in combination with cisplatin. Since gemcitabine has a different mechanism of action from other anticancer agents for NSCLC and a mild toxicity profile, and it may be useful in developing new effective therapies for NSCLC. Further investigation is warranted to assess the efficacy of gemcitabine combination therapy, not only with cisplatin, but with other new anticancer agents.
key words: Gemcitabine, Non-small cell lung cancer, Chemotherapy, New drugs
Received: March 1, 1999
Accepted: October 1, 1999
JJLC 39 (7): 943-953, 1999
