Chemotherapy in elderly patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Because of increasing life expectancy and of higher risk of cancer with ageing, lung cancer in elderly is a frequent disease. For a long time nihilism influenced treatment decisions in elderly patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Since the beginning of the last decade single agent chemotherapy has been accepted as standard of care, vinorelbine and gemcitabine being the most frequently used drugs in Europe and US, docetaxel in Japan. Platinum-based doublets have been shown to be superior to monotherapy in young and fit patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Although there were some indications from subgroup analyses of clinical trials not specifically dedicated to elderly patients that a platinum-based doublet might also benefit to older patients, there was no definitive proof of concept until ASCO meeting 2010. At this meeting results of a phase 3 trial showed that PS 0-2 patients, aged 70-89 years drove a significant benefit from a treatment with carboplatin associated to weekly paclitaxel compared to a monotherapy. Thus, the paradigm of treatment in elderly patients should perhaps be modified from a single agent to doublet chemotherapy. Whether other platinum-based doublets would provide the same benefit as the specific one studied remains to be evaluated.