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Clinical observation of docetaxel in treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer in the elderly patients

  • Published:
The Chinese-German Journal of Clinical Oncology

Abstract

Objective

The aim of our study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and side effects of docetaxel as single chemotherapy for elderly patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods

Forty-two elderly patients with advanced NSCLC who were chemotherapy-naive were enrolled in this study. Docetaxel at the doses of 70 mg/m2 was administrated intravenously every 21 days as a cycle, each patient received 2–4 cycles. All patients were followed up until disease progressed or patients died.

Results

Among 42 patients, 40 could be evaluated, 1 complete response (CR), 9 partial response (PR), 13 stable disease (SD), 17 progress disease (PD). The overall response rate (CR + PR) was 35% and disease control rate (CR + PR + SD) was 57.5%. The median time to progress (TTP) was 4.2 months, median survival time was 6.1 months and 1-year survival rate was 35.8%. The main toxicity was myelosuppression and decreasing platelet.

Conclusion

Single agent docetaxel for elderly patients with advanced NSCLC is an efficient and well-tolerated chemotherapeutic approach with a low toxicity level.

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Correspondence to Yongguang Cai.

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Cai, Y., Xie, X. & Li, M. Clinical observation of docetaxel in treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer in the elderly patients. Chin. -Ger. J. Clin. Oncol. 9, 201–203 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10330-010-0029-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10330-010-0029-3

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