A new platinum-based treatment targeting lung cancer has offered some encouraging results following weeks of testing.

The evaluation process compared the effectiveness of three different solutions on more than 1,200 patients suffering from stage IIIB to stage IV non-small-cell lung cancer.

According to The Journal of Clinical Oncology, comparison showed that patients treated with a Taxotere/cisplatin combination had a median survival significantly longer than those without.

In comparison to the next most successful treatment, using 'vinorelbine', the platinum-based solution showed an improvement of nearly 12 per cent in survival rates for the first year.

The two-year survival rate was 21 per cent for Taxotere/cisplatin-treated patients compared to 14 per cent without.

In addition subjects treated with the combination also found they had a better quality of life, experiencing less deterioration than with some other treatments.

'These results demonstrate that a [Taxotere] plus platinum combination is an effective treatment option with a favourable therapeutic index for use in first-line therapy of patients with advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer,' the researchers said.