[Chemotherapy of stage IV non-small-cell lung cancer: contribution of gemcitabine].

Several drugs active against non-small-cell lung cancer currently available. The efficacy of the cicplatin-gemcitabine combination was recently demonstrated in three randomized trials published over the last twelve months in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. This association compares favorably with cisplatin alone, cisplatin-etoposide and mitomycin-ifosfamide-cisplatin combinations. The cisplatin-gemcitabine combination can now be considered as a new "classical" activ regimen in stage IV NSCLC patients and could be used in patients with more favorable prognosis (i.e. in the periopertive seeting). Nevertheless, the benefit of such treatment in stage IV NSCLC seems to be limited to patients with a good performance status (PS 0 and 1).