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Survival Rate for Elderly in Combined Lung Cancer
Treatment Match Younger Victims
April 25, 2005 – Lung cancer, the leading cause of
cancer deaths in the U.S., strikes about half its victims after they
have reached their 70th birthday. Researchers have now discovered that
these elderly patients tolerate combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy
with no higher risk of death than younger patients.
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About 20 percent of patients with lung cancer will
have small cell lung cancer (SCLC). In the past, SCLC progressed rapidly
despite initial chemotherapy sensitivity and few patients survive three
years. New treatment methods have, however, provided encouraging
results.
Studies have found chemotherapy combined with
radiotherapy improves survival over chemotherapy alone. Since that
finding, researchers have developed new protocols for combined treatment
to improve survival.
Investigators led by Steven E. Schild, M.D. of the
Mayo Clinic and the North Central Cancer Treatment Group conducted a
clinical trial using two different approaches to combined therapies.
Using data from this trial, they sought to evaluate the role of age in
therapy tolerance, disease control, and survival following combined
treatment therapy.
They found that two- and five-year survival rates
and disease progression rates were not significantly different for
patients younger than 70 compared to those 70 years of age and older.
At five years, 22 percent of patients younger than
70 were living compared to 17 percent of elderly patients. This
difference is not statistically significant.
While overall toxicity was similar between the two
age groups, specific moderate and severe toxicities occurred more
frequently in the elderly. Severe pneumonitis requiring ventilation or
continuous oxygen was significantly more common in the elderly,
occurring in 6 percent of elderly patients compared to no patients in
the younger age group.
Based on their findings, the authors conclude: "fit
elderly patients with locally advanced limited stage small cell lung
cancer should be encouraged to receive combined treatment therapy,
preferably on clinical trials."
The study appears in the June 1, 2005 issue of
CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society
The article title is "Results of Combined-Modality
Therapy for Limited-Stage Small Cell Lung Carcinoma in the Elderly."
Authors include Steven E. Schild, Philip J. Stella, Burke J. Brooks,
Sumithra Mandrekar, James A. Bonner, William L. McGinnis, James A.
Mailliard, James E. Krook, Richard L. Deming, Alex A. Adjei, Aminah
Jatoi and James R. Jett.
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