Elderly Cancer Patients Can Benefit From Aggressive Treatment

Thursday, September 25, 2003

Media Contact: Anne Tewksbury
Public Affairs
480-301-4368

For Immediate Release – September 25, 2003

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Elderly patients can benefit from, and are willing to consider, aggressive treatment for inoperable non-small cell lung cancer, according to a study by Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale physician Steven Schild, M.D., and reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology this month. The study compared the outcome of aggressive therapy in patients over the age of 70 patients to younger patients.

All the patients in this study had inoperable non-small cell lung cancer and received aggressive treatment which includes chemotherapy plus radiation therapy. The two-year survival rates were 39 percent among the younger patients (under age 70), compared to 36 percent among the elderly patients. The five-year survival rates were 18 percent for the younger patients and 13 percent for the elderly ones.

Although, these survival rates were not significantly different, the elderly patients did have more toxicity from therapy than the younger ones, including problems with blood counts and lung irritation.

During 2003, lung cancer will be diagnosed in an estimated 171,900 patients and cause an estimated 157,200 deaths in the United States. About 80% of these lung cancer patients have non-small cell lung cancer, and most of them are candidates for radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy.

Because the median age of patients diagnosed with lung cancer is 70 years, it is important to understand the effects of aggressive treatment, which includes combined radiation and chemotherapy, in the elderly, according to Dr. Schild.

"This study shows that fit elderly patients can benefit from aggressive cancer treatments and need not be simply relegated to palliative therapy or no therapy," said Dr. Schild. "These patients should be encouraged to receive combination therapy for stage III non-small cell lung cancer, optimally on clinical trials."

Mayo Clinic is a private group practice of medicine dedicated to providing diagnosis and treatment of patient illnesses through a systematic focus on individual patient needs. As a leading academic medical center in the Southwest, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale focuses on providing specialty and surgical care in more than 66 disciplines at its outpatient facility in north Scottsdale and at Mayo Clinic Hospital. The 205-bed hospital is located at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard (north of Bell Road) in northeast Phoenix, and provides inpatient care to support the medical and surgical specialties of the Clinic, which is located at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

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