Chemoradiation in Elderly Patients with Limited-Stage Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Elderly patients with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) are a challenge to treat due to comorbidities and the required aggressive treatment regimens for curative intent.

To determine whether they derive benefit from aggressive therapy, investigators evaluated 8637 stage I–III SCLC patients (median age, 75; year of diagnosis, 2003–2011) in the National Cancer Data Base and evaluated survival outcomes for those treated with chemoradiation (median dose, 59.4 Gy) versus chemotherapy alone. Factors significantly associated with receiving palliative chemotherapy instead of curative-intent chemoradiation were increasing age, clinical stage III disease, female gender, and presence of medical comorbidities.

Results were as follows:

• Median ove…