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The Aged Patient with Lung Cancer

Management Recommendations

  • Review Article
  • Drug Therapy
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Summary

Elderly patients with lung cancer have not benefited from the therapeutic improvements obtained during the 1980s with younger adults. Potentially operable non—small-cell lung cancers are more common in elderly patients, who are more likely to have localised disease at diagnosis. Even so, elderly patients are rarely treated with surgery. Radiotherapy remains the most frequently adopted tool to treat non—small-cell lung cancer in this age group.

Epipodophyllotoxin derivatives constitute the best option for chemotherapy of elderly patients with small-cell lung cancer. When used as single agent regimens, these drugs show the same overall response rate as combination chemotherapy, but with reduced toxicity.

Haematopoietic growth factors are used to reduce bone marrow damage following cytotoxic chemotherapy, and may be a promising tool in elderly patients. Special attention should be given to increasing the number of elderly patients with small-cell lung cancer enrolled in phase I and II studies to investigate new agents for the treatment of this tumour.

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  1. Division of Medical Oncology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Aviano, Via Pedemontana Occidentale, I-33081, Aviano, Italy

    Vittorina Zagonel, Giovanni Lo Re, Maria Carmela Merola & Silvio Monfardini

  2. Medical Oncology and AIDS, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Aviano, Italy

    Umberto Tirelli

  3. Epidemiology Unit, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Aviano, Italy

    Diego Serraino

  4. Division of Radiotherapy, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Aviano, Italy

    Maurizio Mascarin & Mauro Gaetano Trovò

  5. Division of Pathology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Aviano, Italy

    Antonino Carbone

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  1. Vittorina Zagonel
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Zagonel, V., Tirelli, U., Serraino, D. et al. The Aged Patient with Lung Cancer. Drugs & Aging 4, 34–46 (1994). https://doi.org/10.2165/00002512-199404010-00004

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