Table 1. Patient characteristics.

	Cisplatin–gemcitabine		Epirubicin–gemcitabine
	No.	%	No.	%	P
Patients entered	119	50	121	50	ns
Sex					ns
Male	94	79	85	70
Female	25	21	36	30
Age, years
Median	60		60
Range	29–80		32–76		ns
Stage					ns
IIIa	8	7	8	7
IIIb	43	36	44	36
IV	68	57	69	57
Performance status					ns
0	36	30	37	31
1	66	55	73	60
2	17	14	11	9
Histology					ns
Squamous cell carinoma	41	35	32	26
Adenocarcinoma	41	35	50	41
Large cell carcinoma	36	30	38	31
Other	1	1	1	1
Weight loss (last 3 months)					ns
<5%	82	69	80	66
⩾5%	37	31	41	34
Liver metastases					ns
Absent	109	92	111	92
Present	10	8	10	8

ns=Not significant.