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The pooled analysis of single gemcitabine for non-small cell lung cancer patients with elderly age

  • Published:
The Chinese-German Journal of Clinical Oncology

Abstract

Objective

Gemcitabine, used as single agent for elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), was demonstrated effective in this population based on phase II studies. The aim of this study was to summarize all those phase II studies with the hope to get a comprehensive understanding of gemcitabine efficacy.

Methods

The PubMed database was used to search all the papers on NSCLC associated with gemcitabine used as single agent in the first line setting till to March 31st, 2010. And the medians and their 95% CI of overall response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progression free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were calculated.

Results

1. There were 7 papers including 410 patients with performance status (PS) ≤ 2 and advanced stage collected. 2. The dose-intensities of gemcitabine were 843.75 mg/m2/week-1125 mg/m2/week in the 4-week schedule, and 666.7 mg/m2/week in the 3-week schedule. 3. The median age was 73.8 (95% CI was 72.44, 75.16) years old; 36.1% (95% CI: 31.4%, 40.7%) of patients with stage IIIB and 60.5% (95% CI: 55.8%, 65.2%) of patients with stage IV; 35.9% (95% CI: 31.2%, 40.5%) patients were adenocarcinomas and 43.7% (95% CI: 38.9%, 48.5%) patients were squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). 4. The ORR, DCR, PFS/TTP, and OS were 22.3% (95% CI: 18.2%, 26.5%), 58.4% (95% CI: 53.5%, 63.4%), 3.6 (95% CI: 2.9, 5.15) months and 6.68 (95% CI: 5.4, 8.11) months, respectively.

Conclusion

Gemcitabine as single agent applied in this special population was effective and can be well tolerated under different doses and usage.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangzhou, 510060, China

    Fang Wang, Liangping Xia, Guifang Guo, Huijuan Qiu & Wenzhuo He

  2. VIP Region, Sun Yat-sen Universty Cancer Center, Guangzhou, 510060, China

    Fang Wang, Liangping Xia, Guifang Guo, Huijuan Qiu & Wenzhuo He

  3. Tumor Center, The First People’s Hospital of Foshan, Foshan, 528000, China

    Feifei Zhou

Authors
  1. Fang Wang
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  2. Liangping Xia
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  3. Guifang Guo
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  4. Huijuan Qiu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liangping Xia.

Additional information

Support by a grant from Major Science and Technology Project of “National Significant New Drug Creation” (No. 2008ZX09312-002).

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Wang, F., Xia, L., Guo, G. et al. The pooled analysis of single gemcitabine for non-small cell lung cancer patients with elderly age. Chin. -Ger. J. Clin. Oncol. 9, 683–687 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10330-010-0708-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10330-010-0708-0

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