Nedaplatin (NDP) has been extensively used to treat patients with
non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the last decade. The present study compared the survival benefits of NDP and
cisplatin (DDP) in the treatment of NSCLC. Patients (n=392) with NSCLC were treated with at least two cycles of
platinum-based
chemotherapy. Among these patients, 202 received DDP-based
chemotherapy, and 190 received NDP-based
chemotherapy. The overall survival time of the two groups and the toxicity of drugs were analyzed. The results showed that only the
chemotherapy cycle duration was found to be statistically different between DDP and NDP groups in all the characteristics. The mean
chemotherapy duration was 3.3 cycles in the DDP group, and 4.1 cycles in the NDP group (χ2=20.206, P<0.001). Additionally, the
chemotherapy cycle number was also an independent predictive factor for the overall survival time in the multivariate analysis (HR=0.539, P<0.001). The median survival time (MST) was 15 months in the DDP group, and 20 months in the NDP group (χ2=5.189, P=0.023). The 1-, 2- and 3-year overall survival rates were 62.4, 25.7 and 15.8%, and 78.9, 38.9, and 16.8% in the DPP and NDP groups, respectively. The incidence of grade 3-4
nausea/
vomiting,
anorexia and
weight loss was higher in the DDP compared to the NDP group (36.1 vs. 8.4%, 17.3 vs. 5.8%, and 9.9 vs. 1%, respectively). In conclusion, NDP-based
chemotherapy had a survival benefit compared to DDP-based
chemotherapy for NSCLC patients, due to the lower toxicity of NDP, which renders this
drug more tolerable, thus allowing patients to undergo more cycles of
chemotherapy.