![Sample our Bioscience journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5925/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Bioscience.jpg"})
Abstract
Background. Clinical trials indicate that the benefit of adding concurrent chemotherapy to radiotherapy of locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for fit elderly is similar to the benefit for younger patients. However, since elderly patients are under-represented in most trials, the results might be due to selection bias, thus reports from a cohort of consecutively treated patients are warranted. The current single institution study reports on the influence of age on survival of locally advanced NSCLC patients treated with radiotherapy combined with or without concurrent chemotherapy.
Material and methods. Altogether, 478 patients completed radical radiotherapy in doses of 60–66 Gy/30–33 fractions from 1995 to June 2012; 137 of the patients had concurrent chemotherapy. The data was analyzed in age groups < 60, 60–69, and ≥ 70 years.
Results. In the analyses of overall and lung cancer specific survival the hazard ratio was related to the use of concurrent chemotherapy was 0.49 (95% CI 0.29; 0.82), 0.68 (95% CI 0.48; 0.98) and 1.01 (95% CI 0.67; 1.51) for the age groups < 60, 60–69, and ≥ 70, respectively.
Conclusion. Use of concurrent chemotherapy to radiotherapy of locally advanced NSCLC was associated with a survival benefit in patient younger than 70 years which was not the case for patients older than 70 years, indicating the need to be careful when selecting elderly patients for concurrent chemo-radiation.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
This work has been supported by CIRRO – The Lundbeck Foundation Center for Interventional Research in Radiation Oncology and The Danish Council for Strategic Research. The work is part of AgeCare (Academy of Geriatric Cancer Research) at Odense University Hospital.
Supplementary material available online
Supplementary Table I available online at http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/0284186X.2014.958529.