Pemetrexed Plus Cisplatin for Brain Metastasis of Advanced Non - Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

NSCLC patients often have cerebral metastasis : 10% at diagnosis and 40% during disease management. Neurosurgery is not indicated in the majority of cases because of presence of several lesions in the brain, failure of primary tumor control or presence of extra-cerebral metastasis. Cerebral metastasis lead to death in 30 to 50% of these cases. Management of these patients in this situation is based on supportive care and whole-brain radiotherapy. The place of chemotherapy for patients with good performance status was discussed for a long time and it is now admitted. However, the place of new drugs such as pemetrexed, which is currently used as a second line treatment for NSCLC, needs to be further studied. It is known that pemetrexed when added to cisplatin for treatment of NSCLC provides a similar effectiveness when compared to other drugs associations commonly used in this indication. In addition, Cisplatin with Pemetrexed probably present a better safety profile.

The present study is based upon the hypothesis stipulating that the association cisplatin-pemetrexed will be at least as efficient as the others association currently used for treatment of NSCLC and will present a better safety profile. The primary objective of this study is overall response rate on brain metastasis according to RECIST criteria. Secondary judgment criterias are : Overall response rate, PFS after first-line CDDP plus pemetrexed, safety profile, quality of life, neurological symptoms, overall survival.

The trial will enroll up to 45 patients in this single-arm two-stage sequential phase II study with the possibility of stopping the study early because of lack of efficacy.