Abstract:
Objective To investigate the clinical effect and survival analysis of metronomic oral vinorelbine monotherapy on elderly patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods We involved 56 chemotherapy-naive elderly patients(≥75 yrs) with stage ⅢB-Ⅳ NSCLC who received oral vinorelbine 50 mg per time, three times per week (Monday-Wednesday-Friday) continuously, until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or patient refusal.Observation endpoints were overall response rate (ORR), overall survival(OS) and progression free survival(PFS).
Results ORR was 17.9% with 9 cases(16.1%) of PR and 1 case(1.8%) of CR; 22 patients(39.3%) experienced stable disease lasting more than 12 weeks, leading to an overall DCR of 57.2%.Median progression-free survival was 5 months (range 3-22 months) and median overall survival was 9 months (range 4-31 months).Treatment was well tolerated with rare serious toxicity(grade 3-4).
Conclusion Metronomic oral vinorelbine monotherapy is safe, reliable and could improve patients' life of quality, which provide an interesting option for clinic therapy decision on elderly patients with advanced NSCLC.