The Relationship Between the Effectiveness of Chemotherapy and Prognosis According to Histological Subtypes in Small Cell Carcinoma of the Lung

In this study, small cell carcinoma of the lung was subclassified into 4 subtypes: oat cell carcinoma (OAT), intermediate cell type (INT), combined oat cell carcinoma and undifferentiated carcinoma, small cell type (UCS). The relationship between the effectiveness of chemotherapy and prognosis among these subtypes was examined in 66 cases. They consisted of 54 cases of OAT and INT and 12 cases of UCS. Patients received courses of therapy consisting of vincristine/nimustine or vincristine/adriamycin from January, 1977 to July, 1980 and vincristine/nimustine/ cyclophosphamide or vincristine/nimustine/adriamycin from August, 1980 to December, 1984. The response rates to these combined chemotherapeutic regimens were 75.9% for OAT and INT, and 25.0% for UCS and this difference was statistically significant (p