Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and worldwide, according to the book "Clinical Oncology." There are two major types of lung cancer: non-small-cell lung cancer and small-cell lung cancer. Chemotherapy, the use of cancer drugs to kill cancer cells, is widely used to treat lung cancer, and there are different types of chemotherapy treatments designed to combat various types of lung cancers.
Chemo for Small Cell Lung Cancer
Patients with small-cell lung cancer respond well to chemotherapy, according to UpToDate.com. Different drugs are often combined to treat this disease. According to Cancerhelp.org.uk, the most common chemotherapy combinations used for small cell lung cancer are Cisplatin and etoposide, Carboplatin and etoposide, CAVE (CAV plus etoposide), CAV (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and vincristine), and GemCarbo (gemcitabine and carboplatin).
Chemo for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
According to Cancerhelp.org.uk, the most common chemotherapy drugs for non-small cell lung cancer include cisplatin, gemcitabine, doxorubicin, ifosfamide, mitomycin, vinorelbine, etoposide, pemetrexed and topotecan. Patients are often treated with combinations of two or more of these drugs.
According to a 2002 study published in "New England Medical Journal," none of the four chemotherapy regimens investigated in the study (cisplatin and paclitaxel, cisplatin and gemcitabine, cisplatin and docetaxel, and carboplatin and paclitaxel) offered recognizable advantage over others for treatment of advanced non small-cell lung cancer.
Molecular-Targeted Therapies
Drugs that target specific molecular processes in the cell, such as cetuximab and bevacizumab, have been shown to improve survival of lung cancer patients when used together with standard chemotherapy, according to a 2008 article published on News-medical.net.
References
- Cancerhelp.org.uk: Chemotherapy for lung cancer
- "Clinical Oncology;" Abeloff, et al.; 2007
- News-medical.net: Traditional chemotherapy agents with targeted therapies improves survival in advance-stage lung cancer
