Daily low-dose carboplatin plus concurrent thoracic radiotherapy is the standard treatment for elderly patients with unresectable clinical stage (c-Stage) III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Japan. However, a phase I study by Omori et al. suggests that weekly carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel plus concurrent thoracic radiotherapy have comparable efficacy outcomes with more manageable adverse events. In December 2020, we initiated a randomized controlled trial in Japan to confirm whether the weekly carboplatin plus nab-paclitaxel regimen is noninferior to the daily low-dose carboplatin regimen for concurrent chemoradiotherapy in elderly patients with unresectable c-Stage III NSCLC. We plan to enroll 166 patients from 50 institutions in 3.5 years. The primary endpoint is overall survival. The secondary endpoints are progression-free survival, response rate, proportion of patients starting maintenance durvalumab therapy, adverse events, site of progression, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Trial Outcome Index deterioration and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living deterioration.
Keywords: carboplatin; nab-paclitaxel; non-small cell lung cancer; radiotherapy; randomized controlled trial.
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