The Elderly Lung Cancer Vinorelbine Italian Study demonstrated the first evidence of the utility of chemotherapy in elderly patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In a large randomized trial, gemcitabine and vinorelbine failed to show any advantage over either agent alone. With the current evidence, single agent chemotherapy with a third-generation drug can be considered a recommended option for elderly patients with advanced NSCLC. A Japanese phase I/II study showed the activity (overall response rate 52%, median survival 12.4 months) and tolerability of weekly docetaxel/ cisplatin combination in patients older than age 75 years. There have been no randomized prospective trials dedicated to elderly NSCLC patients to evaluate tolerability and efficacy of platinum-based combination.~Comparison: Single-agent weekly docetaxel versus weekly regimen of docetaxel-cisplatin combination for elderly advanced NSCLC.
To evaluate the efficacy of docetaxel-cisplatin combination in comparison to docetaxel alone for elderly patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.