title: Lung cancer in patients aged 80 years and over.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study is to examine clinical and pathological features, treatment modality approaches in the elderly, especially in patients aged 80 years and older.
  
  
  METHODS
  From the databases at two educational hospitals during the period from January 1978 and December 2007, medical records of lung cancer patients were retrospectively reviewed. The patient population was divided into three age groups: less than 70 years (the <70 age group), 70-79 years (the 70-79 age group), and 80 years or older (the > or =80 age group). Time trends were also studied in two-time intervals: first study period up to 1997, which represents past practice standards, the second study period up to 2007, which represents contemporary practice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients aged 80 years and older comprised 7.5% of 2775 consecutive patients with lung cancer, and there was a rapid increase in the proportion of patients aged 80 years or older from the earlier to the later time period. The > or =80 age group had higher proportion of poor performance status (PS) and comorbid disease than the <70 age group and the 70-79 age group. Unchanged proportion of patients with poor PS and advanced disease at presentation were observed in the > or =80 age group. The > or =80 age group was less likely to be subjected to surgery or chemotherapy, and had inferior outcomes when compared with the 70-79 age group and the <70 age group. Survival improvement was not observed in the > or =80 age group. Multivariate analysis showed good PS, early clinical stage and surgery were favorable prognostic factors in the > or =80 age group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In order to improve the outcome, detection of early stage lung cancer in patients with good PS and thorough pretreatment evaluation for appropriate treatment are indeed essential even for the > or =80 age group of patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Respiratory Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba-city, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan. hirosato@md.tsukuba.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kurishima
authors.forename: Ryota
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Hiroichi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: Katsunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kagohashi
authors.forename: Gen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ohara
authors.forename: Shigemi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: Morio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohtsuka
authors.forename: Kiyohisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sekizawa
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hizawa
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D016896:Treatment Outcome