Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy and safety of pemetrexed or gemcitabine combined with carboplatin as the first-line therapy in elderly patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods: Seventy patients aged 70 years or over with stage IIIb-IV NSCLC were equally and randomly divided into pemetrexed plus cisplatin group (PC) and gemcitabine plus carboplatin group (GC). Patients in the PC group received pemetrexed (PEM) 500 mg/m(2) on day 1, and carboplatin (CBP) AUC5 on day 1 for 21-day cycle. Patients in the GC group received gemcitabine 1000 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8, CBP AUC5 on day 1 for a 21-day cycle.
Results: In the PC and GC groups, CR 0 and 0, PR 10 and 8, response rates 28.6% and 22.9% were observed, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (χ(2) = 0.299, P = 0.584). The 1-year and 2-year survival rates of the PC and GC groups were 48.6% vs. 45.7% and 11.4% vs. 11.4%, respectively, with a median survival of 11.00 and 10.00 months, without a statistically significant difference between the two groups (χ(2) = 0.01, P = 0.919). Regarding toxicities, the incidences of neutropenia/thrombocytopenia, nausea and vomiting (grade III ∼ IV) in the GC group were significantly higher than those in the PC group (P < 0.05). According to the observer scale of lung cancer symptoms, the post-treatment scores improved in both the two groups, and with no significant difference between them (P > 0.05).
Conclusions: PC and GC show similar efficacy for elderly NSCLC patients, however, the toxicities in PC patients are lower than those in GC patients. Thus, pemetrexed combined with carboplatin is an effective chemotherapeutic regimen for advanced NSCLC in elderly patients.