Older Patients with Lung Cancer Benefit from Postoperative Chemotherapy

Patients up to age 79 achieved a survival benefit.

Adjuvant chemotherapy has been shown to improve relapse-free and overall survival in patients with completely resected stage IIIA, stage II, and possibly stage IB non–small cell lung cancer. (NSCLC; N Engl J Med 2004; 350:351, N Engl J Med 2005; 352:2589, and Lancet Oncol 2006; 7:719).

The median ages of patients in these trials were 59 to 61, which is substantially younger than the median age of lung cancer patients at diagnosis. Would older patients also benefit from postoperative chemotherapy?

To find out, investigators performed an observational cohort study involving 3324 eligible patients (≥65) in the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database who received a diagnosis of stage II–IIIA NSCLC between 1992 and 2005 and who h…

Reviewing Author

Lin-Chi Chen, MD, PhD