COMBINATION OF WEEKLY RADIATION AND DOCETAXEL FOR LOCALLY ADVANCED NON SMALL CA

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Locally advanced or unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is considered an incurable disease with a life expectancy of less than two years regardless of treatment. Many patients with stage II and most with stage III NSCLC are initially controlled with surgery or radiation relapse at a remote site. This is believed to be due to the presence of malignant cells within the local tumor draining lymphatic system or at remote sites at the time of initial diagnosis. Local treatment modalities such as tumor irradiation as well as systemic chemotherapy have been clearly ineffective in controlling disease progression. Until recently, the benefit of treating locally advanced NSCLC has been controversial since some studies did not show improved survival over no treatment at all. Nevertheless, treatment was offered due to improved quality of life associated with treatment. Chemotherapy, radiation or both in succession are presently offered by most oncologist to these patients. It was hypothesized that both systemic and locoregional control of the disease could be improved by combining radiation and chemotherapy, subsequentially or concomitantly. This study aims to investigate if the combination of the drug Taxotere given one day before radiation is well tolerated and will result in enhanced shrinkage of the cancer as compared to traditional radiation therap