ORIGINAL ARTICLE Comparison of efficacy and safety of three different chemotherapy regimens delivered with concomitant radiotherapy in inoperable stage III non-small cell lung cancer patients Melike Ozcelik 1 & Taner Korkmaz 1 & Hatice Odabas 1 & Cengiz Gemici 2 & Ozlem Ercelep 1 & Sinemis Yuksel 1 & Aslihan Guven Mert 1 & Heves Surmeli 1 & Deniz Isik 1 & Dincer Aydin 1 & Mesut Seker 3 & Alparslan Mayadagli 3 & Pınar Ozdemir 1 & Mehmet Aliustaoglu 1 & Mahmut Gumus 3 Received: 21 November 2015 /Accepted: 29 December 2015 # International Society of Oncology and BioMarkers (ISOBM) 2016 Abstract Concomitant administration of chemotherapy and ra- diotherapy is currently recognized as the standard of treatment in locally advanced inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Our study aimed to compare the efficacy and toxic- ities of three different chemotherapy regimens delivered concur- rently with radiotherapy. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of patients who received the PE (cisplatin, 50 mg/m 2 , on days 1, 8, 29, and 36 plus etoposide, 50 mg/m 2 , on days 1 to 5 and 29 to 33), PD (docetaxel, 20 mg/m 2 , on day 1 plus cisplatin, 20 mg/m 2 , on day 1, every week), and PC (carboplatin, AUC 2 plus paclitaxel, 45 mg/m 2 , on day 1, every week) regimens con- currently with radiotherapy. A total of 227 patients were evalu- ated in the study. Median follow-up time was 13 months (2– 101). There were 27 females (11.9 %) and 200 males (88.1 %) with a median age of 61 (38–82) years. The PD group had higher rates of esophagitis, mucositis, and anemia (p < 0.05). The PC group had higher rates of neuropathy ( p = 0.000). The progression-free survival (PFS) time was 10 months for patients in the PC group, 15 months for patients in the PD group, and 21 months for the PE group (p = 0.010). Patients in the PC group had a median overall survival time of 23 months, those in the PD group 27 months, and those in the PE group 36 months (p = 0.098). Combination of cisplatin-etoposide with radiothera- py led to a more favorable outcome compared with the other two regimens. It shows generally manageable toxicity profile and compliance to treatment is noticeable. Keywords Concurrent chemoradiation . Non-small cell lung cancer . Stage III Introduction Carcinoma of the lung remains one of the most devastating diseases worldwide, in terms of incidence and mortality rates [1]. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) constitutes up to 85 % of all cases of lung cancer, and about 35–45 % of these patients have stage III disease at diagnosis [2]. Stage III NSCLC is one of the most controversial areas in managing the lung cancer and gives clinicians chance to practice the art of medicine. Therapeutic strategies for stage III NSCLC in- clude surgical resection with adjuvant therapy, preoperative chemotherapy, preoperative chemoradiotherapy, chemothera- py and radiotherapy (either sequentially or concurrently), che- moradiotherapy with induction, or consolidation chemothera- py. The role and timing of surgery, chemotherapy, and radia- tion therapy are best determined according to the patients’ performance status and comorbidities, extent of nodal and tumoral involvement, and the experience of the centers. To date, numerous trials were directed to find out which modality of treatment should be regarded as the mainstay of therapy for this group of patients. In 1980s, radiotherapy (RT) alone was used as standard therapy in stage III disease but results were disappointing. In order to improve tumor re- sponse, the addition of cytotoxic chemotherapy before, * Melike Ozcelik drmelike.ozcelik@gmail.com 1 Department of Medical Oncology, Kartal Dr. Lutfi Kirdar Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey 2 Department of Radiation Oncology, Kartal Dr. Lutfi Kirdar Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey 3 Department of Medical Oncology, Bezmialem Vakif University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey Tumor Biol. DOI 10.1007/s13277-015-4776-1