title: [What treatment for a patient of PS 2-3 with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer?].
abstract: Patients with poor performance status (PS) and advanced lung cancer have been underrepresented in clinical trials. As a consequence, the management of these patients in clinical practice is often empirical. Recent data indicate that patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and a PS of 2 tend to benefit from first line chemotherapy with respect to symptom improvement and perhaps overall survival. Whether single-agent or combination chemotherapy is preferable remains debatable. In previously treated patients with NSCLC, EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors produced a substantial rate of clinical benefit and led to an improvement in survival compared with placebo in studies that included a significant percentage of patients with poor PS.
authors.affiliation: PMAC pneumologie, CHU A. Michallon, BP217X, 38043 Grenoble cedex, France. dmoro.pneumo@chu-grenoble.fr
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moro-Sibilot
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pluquet
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zalcman
authors.forename: J-M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bréchot
authors.forename: P-J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Souquet
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Debieuvre
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Morin
authors.forename: J-F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Morère
mesh_terms: D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012720:Severity of Illness Index