ERCC1 Expression-Based Randomized Phase II Study of Gemcitabine/Cisplatin Versus Irinotecan/Cisplatin in Patients with Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

PURPOSE: We evaluated the clinical utility of excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1) expression as a predictive biomarker for platinum-based chemotherapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eligible patients were randomly assigned to the GP (gemcitabine 1,250 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8, and cisplatin 75 mg/m(2) on day 1 every 3 weeks) or IP (irinotecan 65 mg/m(2) and cisplatin 30 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks) arm. The primary goal of this study was to compare the response rate (RR) of the GP and IP arms according to the ERCC1 expression level. RESULTS: A total of 279 patients were randomly assigned to the GP (n=139) and IP (n=140) arms, among which 63% were ERCC1-positive and 268 patients were assessable for the RR. The GP and IP arms did not differ significantly with respect to the RR (29.8% vs. 27.0%, respectively; p=0.082), median progression-free survival (PFS; 4.5 months vs. 3.9 months, respectively; p=0.117), and overall survival (OS; 16.5 months vs. 16.7 months, respectively; p=0.313). When comparing the efficacy between the ERCC1-positive and ERCC1-negative groups, there was no significant difference in the RR (GP, 28.2% vs. 32.6%, respectively, p=0.509; IP, 30.2% vs. 21.6%, respectively, p=0.536), median PFS (GP, 4.6 months vs. 5.0 months, respectively, p=0.506; IP, 3.9 months vs. 3.7 months, respectively, p=0.748), or median OS (GP, 18.6 months vs. 11.9 months, respectively, p=0.070; IP, 17.5 months vs. 14.0 months, respectively, p=0.821). CONCLUSION: Immunohistochemical analysis of the ERCC1 expression level did not differentiate the efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC.