Age differences in the treatment of lung cancer-a cohort study among 42,000 patients from Germany

We aimed to describe treatment of lung cancer patients in Germany based on health claims data, focusing particularly on differences by age.

Using the German Pharmacoepidemiological Research Database (GePaRD, ~ 20% of the German population) we identified lung cancer patients diagnosed in 2015-2018 based on a previously developed algorithm and followed them until death, end of continuous insurance or end of 2020. We described initial treatment patterns after diagnosis and survival, stratified among others by age.

We included 42,629 incident lung cancer patients (58% male). Surgery within three months after diagnosis was performed in 36%, 31%, 29% and 18% of patients aged < 50, 50-69, 70-79 and ≥ 80, respectively. Among patients without surgery, systemic therapy was administered in 77%, 72%, 54% and 25% of patients aged < 50, 50-69, 70-79 and ≥ 80, respectively. Monoclonal antibodies were administered in 15-30% of patients across age groups, and 4% to 15% received protein kinase inhibitors. Overall, 21% of patients remained untreated. In the age groups < 50, 50-69, 70-79 and ≥ 80, this proportions was 9%, 12%, 22% and 48%, respectively.

In conclusion, our study provides a comprehensive overview of the therapy of lung cancer patients in Germany and quantitatively demonstrates the considerable differences between age groups. In terms of clinical cancer registration, the results are useful to estimate the completeness of data for the different types of treatment.