Swedish Lung Cancer Radiation Study Group: predictive value of age at diagnosis for radiotherapy response in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
BACKGROUND
The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of age at diagnosis on prognosis in patients treated with curatively intended radiotherapy for NSCLC.


METHODS
This is a joint effort among all the Swedish Oncology Departments that includes all identified patients with a diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer that have been subjected to curatively intended irradiation (≥50 Gy) treated during 1990 to 2000. Included patients had a histopathological/cytological diagnosis date as well as a death date or a last follow-up date. The following variables were studied in relation to overall and disease-specific survival: age, gender, histopathology, time period, smoking status, stage and treatment.


RESULTS
The median overall survival of all 1146 included patients was 14.7 months, while the five-year overall survival rate was 9.5%. Younger patients (<55 years), presented with a more advanced clinical stage but had yet a significantly better overall survival compared with patients in the age groups 55-64 years (p = 0.035) and 65-74 years (p = 0.0097) in a multivariate Cox regression analysis. The overall survival of patients aged ≥75 years was comparable to those aged <55 years.


CONCLUSIONS
In this large retrospective study we describe that patients younger than 55 years treated with curatively intended radiotherapy for NSCLC have a better overall survival than patients aged 55-64 and 65-74 years and that younger patients seem to benefit more from the addition of surgery and/or chemotherapy to radiotherapy. Due to the exploratory nature of the study, these results should be confirmed in future prospective trials.
Department of Oncology, Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden. georg.h@telia.com
Georg
G
Holgersson
Even
E
Hoye
Michael
M
Bergqvist
Simon
S
Ekman
Jan
J
Nyman
Martin
M
Helsing
Signe
S
Friesland
Margareta
M
Holgersson
Lars
L
Ekberg
Thomas
T
Blystad
Sven-Börje
SB
Ewers
Charlotte
C
Mörth
Britta
B
Löden
Roger
R
Henriksson
Stefan
S
Bergström
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D013548:Sweden