Successful treatment with carboplatin and nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel in a patient with pulmonary spindle cell carcinoma

INTRODUCTION: Pulmonary spindle cell carcinoma (SpCC) is a rare subtype of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and, in general, is chemoresistance. CASE: A sixty-five year-old male patient with metastatic pulmonary SpCC was initially treated with cisplatin and docetaxel, but his disease progressed. Then, he received a combination chemotherapy with carboplatin and nab-PTX followed by maintenanced chemotherapy with nab-PTX. Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron-emission CT revealed a substantial decrease of FDG accumulation in the primary tumor, and the response continued for more than 7 months. DISCUSSION: Preclinical models suggested that nab-PTX may reach the tumor microenvironment more efficiently than solvent-based paclitaxel (sb-PTX) and be preferentially taken up by cancer cells. Considering that there is no effective treatment for patients with pulmonary SpCC, nab-PTX may merit further investigation in patients with pulmonary SpCC.