@article {7496,
	title = {Do elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer get the best out of recent advances in first-line treatment? A comparative study in two tertiary cancer centers in Greece},
	journal = {Journal of Geriatric Oncology},
	volume = {6},
	year = {2015},
	note = {Cited By :4Export Date: 21 February 2017},
	month = {2015},
	pages = {111 - 118},
	abstract = {Background: Elderly patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are thought to receive suboptimal treatment mainly due to concerns for poor compliance and/or excessive toxicity. Patients and Methods: Using the age of 70. years as the pre-defined cut-off, we compared elderly patients with advanced NSCLC suitable for first line chemotherapy with their younger counterparts in terms of: i) diagnosis and disease characteristics ii) adherence to treatment schedule, including dose intensity (DI), and relative dose intensity (RDI), iii) toxicity, tolerance, and efficacy outcomes. Results: Among 292 eligible patients, data were available for 245, of whom 107 (43.7\%) belonged to the elderly group. This group was more likely to present with co-morbidities, non-smoking current status and diagnosis based on cytology alone. As compared to the non-elderly, elderly patients were more likely to receive single-agent therapy (8.0\% vs. 29.2\% respectively, p<. 0.001) and less likely to receive platinum-based chemotherapy (80.3\% vs. 57.9\%, p<. 0.001). Elderly patients also received docetaxel (24.3\% vs. 40.4\%), and bevacizumab (7.5\% vs. 21.3\%) significantly less often and received oral vinorelbine (24.3\% vs. 11.8\%) more frequently. Non-elderly patients were more likely to receive any of the cytotoxic drugs with RDI. >. 0.8 (49.6\% vs. 33.0\%, p=. 0.012) and RDI. >. 0.9 (29.6\% vs. 16\%, p=. 0.015). Substantial toxicity, as well as median overall survival did not differ significantly between the two groups. Conclusions: Only one third of the elderly patients received at least 80\% of the scheduled treatment intensity. Nearly half received diagnosis based on cytology alone, which may deprive them from new, histology-driven, therapeutic approaches. {\textcopyright} 2014 Elsevier Inc.},
	keywords = {Adherence, Chemotherapy, Efficacy, Elderly patients, NSCLC, Tolerance},
	url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84925183052\&doi=10.1016\%2fj.jgo.2014.11.001\&partnerID=40\&md5=ef3e81d91bd89907be3908e5c593a183},
	author = {Bakogeorgos, M. and Mountzios, G. and Bournakis, E. and Economopoulou, P. and Kotsantis, G. and Fytrakis, N. and Kouvatseas, G. and Dimopoulos, M.-A. and Kentepozidis, N.}
}
