Author(s)

Francesco Fiorica, Antonio Stefanelli, Silvia Princivalle, Giuliana Pascale, Francesco Cartei

Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.

More than 60% of lung cancer patients in Europe and the USA are older than 65 years at the time of diagnosis. Despite this, elderly patients are generally under-represented in clinical trials. That being so, a general consensus on how to treat elderly patients is still far from being achieved. In this review, we address some of the issues and challenges surrounding the treatment of older cancer patients and radiochemotherapy. We discuss the existing evidence related to radio-chemotherapy in the elderly, focusing primarily on the lung cancer (NSCLC and SCLC) most commonly seen in older patients, and making general treatment recommendations.

Radiochemotherapy; Lung Cancer; Elderly Patients; Geriatric Oncology; Clinical Trials

F. Fiorica, A. Stefanelli, S. Princivalle, G. Pascale and F. Cartei, "Elderly Lung Cancer Patients and Radiochemotherapy: A Review," Journal of Cancer Therapy, Vol. 3 No. 4A, 2012, pp. 359-363. doi: 10.4236/jct.2012.324047.