title: Radiation therapy alone in elderly with early stage non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Radiation therapy (RT) alone is frequently used in elderly patients with medically inoperable early stage (I/II) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We retrospectively investigated the effectiveness of RT alone in this patient population treated in our institution.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 1995 and 1999, a total of 33 patients were treated with RT alone in our institution, all being males. RT doses ranged 66-78 Gy (median, 70 Gy) using standard fractionation (2.0 Gy per fraction). The age range was 71-97 years (median, 75 years) with 11 patients being >or=80 years old. Twenty-two (67%) patients had a squamous cell carcinoma. There were 24 (73%) stage I and nine (27%) stage II patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Radiographic objective response rate was observed in 23 (70%) patients. The median survival time was 37.4 months and 3-year survival time was 50%, while the median cause-specific survival time was 48.1 months and a 3-year cause-specific survival rate was 55.3%. The median time to local recurrence was 36.8 months and a 3-year local recurrence-free survival rate was 50.2%, while the median time to distant metastasis was not achieved yet, the 3-year distant metastasis-free survival rate being 71.4%. One (3%) patient died of RT-induced acute lung toxicity, while only two (6%) patients experienced late grade 3 lung toxicity. No other high-grade toxicity was observed during this study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RT alone was effective and low toxic in elderly with early stage (I/II) NSCLC and could be considered as treatment of choice in this patient population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain. ssanjose@iconcologia.net
authors.forename: Sol
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: San José
authors.forename: Maria Dolores
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Arnaiz
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lucas
authors.forename: Valentin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.forename: Gala
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.forename: Mariel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zaderazjko
authors.forename: Branislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jeremic
authors.forename: Ferran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guedea
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome