Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Comparative efficacy and safety of pemetrexed and crizotinib in Chinese patients with advanced lung cancer: A preliminary clinical trial

Bolin Chen¹, Lin Wu¹, Min Yang², Jia Li¹, Li Xu¹, Kang Li¹

¹Department of Chest Medicine, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine and Hunan Cancer Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410006; ²Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hunan Children's Hospital, Changsha 410007, Hunan, China.

For correspondence:- Kang Li Email: KayleySnyderlgb@yahoo.com

Accepted: 20 November 2019 Published: 31 December 2019

Citation: Chen B, Wu L, Yang M, Li J, Xu L, Li K. Comparative efficacy and safety of pemetrexed and crizotinib in Chinese patients with advanced lung cancer: A preliminary clinical trial. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(12):2695-2699 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i12.30

© 2019 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To carry out a pilot clinical trial to compare the effectiveness and safety of crizotinib and pemetrexed-based regimens in Chinese patients with advanced lung cancer (ALC).

Method: Patients with confirmed diagnosis of ALC were randomly grouped and treated intravenously with a mixture of pemetrexed (500 mg/m²) and cisplatin (75 mg/m²) plus BSC, or crizotinib (250 mg BD) + BSC in a 1:1 ratio. Efficacy parameters such as overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), and progression-free survival (PFS) were assessed after pemetrexed and crizotinib treatments. The safety of pemetrexed and crizotinib was determined. Survival time with respect to disease progression was also assessed.

Results: Pemetrexed-based regimens showed significantly higher OS and PFS than crizotinib (OS: median = 13.23 and 7.47 months, respectively; p < 0.001; PFS: median = 11.32 and 4.17 months, respectively). Objective response was also favorable in the patients treated with pemetrexed, when compared with those given crizotinib. Pemetrexed-based regimen was superior to crizotinib in improving OS, PFS and ORR, and it offered significantly greater clinical benefits than crizotinib in Chinese patients with ALC.

Conclusion: The results of clinical trial would help clinicians select appropriate therapeutic intervention for patients with ALC.

Keywords: Crizotinib, Pemetrexed, Efficacy, Safety, Advanced lung cancer