Impact of advancing age on treatment and outcomes in anal cancer

Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (SCCA) may cause significant toxicity, and concerns exist about its tolerability in the elderly. The authors compared tolerability and outcomes across the age groups following CRT for SCCA.

Single-institution retrospective analysis of patients with localized SCCA treated with CRT. CRT was standardized at 50.4-54 Gy, with concurrent infusional 5-fluorouracil and mitomycin C. Patients were arbitrarily categorized into three groups: Group 1 - age < 50 years; Group 2 - age ≥ 50 and < 70 years; and Group 3 - age ≥ 70 years.

Of 284 patients identified, 278 were evaluable. The number of patients in each age group was: Group 1 - 51; Group 2 - 140; and Group 3 - 93. Baseline and treatment characteristics, tumor stage, rates of overall acute toxicity, need for unplanned treatment breaks and chemotherapy delivery were largely similar across the age groups. However, nine patients in Group 3 did not complete CRT, compared with five and none in Groups 1 and 2, respectively (p = 0.006). In addition, five patients in Group 3 had diarrhea requiring treatment break, compared with none in the other two groups (p = 0.004). At a median follow-up 5.3 years, there was no significant difference in overall survival (p = 0.11), disease-free survival (p = 0.22) or local-recurrence free survival (p = 0.34), across the three age groups.

CRT is safe and tolerable in the elderly age group, and provides equivalent disease control rates compared with the younger age group. Age alone should therefore not preclude aggressive curative treatment.