PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - DIEGO MARQUEZ-MEDINA
AU  - ANTONIO MARTIN-MARCO
AU  - AMAIA OJANGUREN-GARRANZ
TI  - Age Does Not Worsen the Efficacy Nor Tolerance to Combined Induction Therapies in Locally Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
DP  - 2014 Aug 01
TA  - Anticancer Research
PG  - 4373--4376
VI  - 34
IP  - 8
4099  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/34/8/4373.short
4100  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/34/8/4373.full
SO  - Anticancer Res2014 Aug 01; 34
AB  - Background: One third of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) affects elderly patients in a locally advanced (LA) stage. Induction therapy followed by a curative approach is becoming the standard-of-care for LA-NSCLC. Patients and Methods: We compared the efficacy and tolerance to induction chemotherapy or chemo-radiation followed by surgery or definitive radiotherapy in patients younger (N=64) and older (N=44) than 70 years with LA-NSCLC. Results: Elderly patients trended towards having a worse baseline performance status, and presented a higher percentage of IIIB, and squamous tumors. Nevertheless, no significant differences in response rate, operability, or disease-free and overall survival were found between age groups in the whole series, nor in the sub-group of resected patients. Grade 3-4 toxicity tended to be lower in elderly patients. Conclusion: Age by itself did not significantly worsen either the efficacy or tolerance to combined induction and definitive treatment in patients with LA-NSCLC and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0-2.