Progress On Drug Therapy For Small Cell Lung Cancer

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for about15%-20%of lungcancers, and smoking are closely related. About60%-70%of patients forSCLC are in extensive stage when the first attendence, medicaltherapy remains their primary means of treatment but with poorprognosis. Because of its complex biological behavior, high malignance,relapse and drug resistance after treatment, a multi-drug combination,changing the order and methods of chemotherapeutic agents and adjustmentof dose intensity did not get good therapeutic effect. With the toxicity oftreatment and high malignance, its mortality rate is the highest in varieties oftumors. Therefore, searching for the safe and effective treatment ways ofSCLC is urgent but difficult. In recent years, with the constant developmentof pharmaceutical research on SCLC, some agents, such as temozolomide,Hedgehog signaling pathway inhibitor, bcl-2inhibitors, ipilimumab andbevacizumab, which are widely researched, have showed good anti-tumoractivity in phase Ⅱ and phase Ⅲ clinical trials, providing some novel waysfor research on anticancer drugs of SCLC. We review the current progress of research on drug therapy for SCLC.