[What treatment for a patient of PS 2-3 with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer?].
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.
Moro-Sibilot
D
D
PMAC pneumologie, CHU A. Michallon, BP217X, 38043 Grenoble cedex, France. dmoro.pneumo@chu-grenoble.fr
Pluquet
E
E
Zalcman
G
G
Bréchot
J-M
JM
Souquet
P-J
PJ
Debieuvre
D
D
Morin
F
F
Morère
J-F
JF
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