Management of small cell lung cancer in elderly.

Background : There is increasing interest in the treatment of elderly small cell lung cancer(SCLC) patients, however the patients enrolled in clinical studies are strictly selected elderlies. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the treatment of consecutive unselected patients more than 70 years of age in whom SCLC were diagnosed over the past 22 years. Results. In patients who received cisplatin-containing chemotherapy, response rate(RR) and mean survival time(MST) were 53.8% and 9 months. Whereas, in patients who were treated with carboplatin-containing chemotherapy, RR and MST were 72.0% and 7 months. The latter group included the patients whose doses of carboplatinum was reduced 20 to 50 % in the first course of treatment. There was no difference found in RR, survival, and incidence of toxicity between these chemotherapy groups. Conclusion: Our results showed that in elderly SCLC patients, carboplatin could be substituted for cisplatin without apparent loss of therapeutic efficacy.