Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 6, 2020; 8(21): 5172-5179
Published online Nov 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i21.5172
Efficacy and safety of S-1 maintenance therapy in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients
Xiao-Wei Cheng, Wen-Hua Leng, Chun-Ling Mu
Xiao-Wei Cheng, Wen-Hua Leng, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Panzhihua Central Hospital, Panzhihua 617067, Sichuan Province, China
Chun-Ling Mu, Department of Ultrasound, Panzhihua Central Hospital, Panzhihua 617067, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Cheng XW and Mu CL designed this retrospective study; Leng WH wrote this paper; Cheng XW and Leng WH were responsible for sorting the data.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Panzhihua Central Hospital Institutional Review Board (Approval No. 2019ZD064.1).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement:  No additional data are available
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Chun-Ling Mu, BM BCh, Attending Doctor, Department of Ultrasound, Panzhihua Central Hospital, No. 34 Yikang Street, East District, Panzhihua 617067, Sichuan Province, China. 470589248@qq.com
Received: June 28, 2020
Peer-review started: June 28, 2020
First decision: July 24, 2020
Revised: August 3, 2020
Accepted: September 25, 2020
Article in press: September 25, 2020
Published online: November 6, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Chemotherapy is the predominant treatment for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Cisplatin, paclitaxel, and other commonly applied drugs can control the progress of the disease to a certain extent. After the chemotherapy, drugs like gemcitabine and docetaxel are usually used to treat advanced NSCLC patients, so as to improve their quality of life and extend their survival time.

Research motivation

S-1 has remarkable effects in the maintenance treatment of advanced NSCLC with less toxic and side effects than conventional drugs.

Research objectives

To investigate the efficacy and safety of S-1 maintenance therapy in patients with advanced NSCLC.

Research methods

Ninety-four patients with NSCLC admitted to our hospital from September 2015 to April 2018 were included in the study and divided into the S-1 group (47 cases) and the gemcitabine group (47 cases). S-1 group was treated with S-1, while the gemcitabine group was treated with gemcitabine. The clinical efficacy and quality of life of the patients after treatment in the two groups were evaluated.

Research results

There was no significant difference in the total effective rate between the two groups (P = 0.519). The quality-of-life scores indicated that there was no significant difference between the two groups. The incidence of nausea and vomiting, granulocytopenia and diarrhea in the S-1  group was significantly lower than that in the gemcitabine group. There was no significant difference in the incidence of thrombocytopenia (P = 0.366), the progression-free survival (P = 0.064), and the survival between the two groups (P = 0.050).

Research conclusions

S-1 maintenance therapy shows a significant therapeutic effect in patients with advanced NSCLC. It has the same clinical efficacy as gemcitabine, but with less toxic and side effects, and is more effective and safer than conventional drugs.

Research perspectives

Randomized control trails are required to further validate the effect of S-1 maintenance therapy in patients with advanced NSCLC.