Maintenance Low Dose Oral Navelbine In Patients With Non Small Cell Lung Cancer - MA.NI.LA Trial

Systemic therapy remains the mainstay of treatment of advanced stage NSCLC. Combination chemotherapy with a platinum-based regimen has emerged as standard therapy for patients with advanced stage disease. Observations supported by the findings of several clinical trial, established the notion that an efficacy plateau had been reached in advanced stage NSCLC patients treated with platinum-containing drugs. Recent phase III trials suggest the benefit of "switch" and "continuing" maintenance treatment with different drugs. As "switched therapy", Vinorelbine has been selected on the base of its anti-mitotic role. In fact, the use of anti-mitotic drugs at lower dose but with higher frequency (metronomic schedule) seems to augment the anti-angiogenetic effect of this kind of drugs, thus augmenting the efficacy of the therapy. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to evaluate the role of a "switched maintenance" with oral vinorelbine administered as a metronomic schedule in terms of Progression Free Survival (PFS) in advanced NSCLC patients with stable disease after first line platinum based chemotherapy.