Ifosfamide in non-small-cell lung cancer

Ifosfamide has been used in combination with several drugs including cisplatin, giving rise to multiple doublets and triplets including the ifosfamide-cisplatin-mitomycin regimen (Cullen's MIC regimen) that has been commonly used in Europe. However, new combinations are challenging the activity of the old chemotherapy regimens, especially in terms of objective response rate and time to progressive disease, as has been shown in several phase III randomized trials. Among these new combinations, ifosfamide-vinorelbine and ifosfamide-gemcitabine-cisplatin are especially promising. In this paper, several ifosfamide doublets and triplets are reviewed.