Elderly patients with Lung Cancer

Real world patients diagnosed with lung cancer are aged on the one hand (median age around 70 years) and often frail on the other. In the past years the treatment landscape of NSCLC has changed drastically with the introduction of novel targeted agents, immunotherapy and several different combination regimens. However, in most trials’ patients are young (often median 60-65 years of age) and fit (ECOG 0-1, no comorbidities).

The SIOG lung cancer Task Force aims to review the available data in older NSCLC patients and an expert position will be formulated. Members will participate in the elaborations of one of two expert position papers, one focused on oncogene-driven and another on non-oncogene-driven NSCLC. These manuscripts will be produced thorough review of the literature and available data, as well as from clinical expertise. All members of the task force will be asked to perform literature review and summarise evidence.

Co-Chairs: Lore Decoster, Belgium & Fabio Gomes, UK

Members:
Laurence Bigay-Game, France
Ross Camidge, US
Marloes Derks, Netherlands
James Fletcher, Australia
Alastair Greystoke, UK
Cesare Gridelli, Italy
Ravindran Kanesvaran, Singapore
Kavita Kantilal, UK
Carolyn Presley, US
Tanujaa Rajasekaran, Singapore
Virginia Sun, US
Melisa Wong, US

Management of elderly patients with NSCLC

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a very common disease in the elderly population and its incidence in this particular population is expected to increase further, because of the ageing of the Western population. Despite this, limited data are available for the treatment of these patients and, therefore, the development of evidence-based treatment recommendations is challenging.

In 2010, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) took an initiative in collaboration with International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) and created an experts panel that provided an experts’ opinion consensus paper for the management of elderly NSCLC patients. Since this publication, important new data are available and EORTC and SIOG recommended to update the 2010 recommendations. Besides recommendations for surgery, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy, treatment of locally advanced and metastatic disease, recommendations were expanded, to include data on patient preferences and geriatric assessment.

2014
Management of elderly patients with NSCLC; updated expert’s opinion paper: EORTC Elderly Task Force, Lung Cancer Group and International Society for Geriatric Oncology. Pallis AG, Gridelli C, Wedding U, Faivre-Finn C, Veronesi G, Jaklitsch M, Luciani A, O’Brien M. Ann Oncol. 2014 Jul;25(7):1270-83. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdu022. Epub 2014 Mar 16.