The Clinical Investigation of Pemetrexed Plus Carboplatin as an Active and Tolerable Treatment Plan in Chinese Elderly Patients with Advanced Lung Adenocarcinoma

The standard chemotherapy for Chinese elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains undefined. The study was to evaluate the therapeutic effects as well as side effects of pemetrexed plus carboplatin regimen as the first-line therapy for Chinese elderly patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma. Twenty-three Chinese elderly patients (male 14 and female 9, average age 73.7 years, range 70 81 years) with advanced lung adenocarcinoma received pemetrexed plus carboplatin as the first-line therapy, in detail, pemetrexed 500 mg/m and carboplatin AUC 5 mg/ml/m were given intravenously on day 1. The treatment was repeated everyday in the 21 days cycle. Therapeutic effects were evaluated at least after two cycles of treatment. The remission rate, disease control rate, time to progression and overall survival were observed. The results showed that all the cases were valid for response evaluation, with the complete remission 0 case, partial remission 8 cases, stabilize disease 9 cases and progression disease 6 cases. The remission rate (including complete remission and partial remission) was 34.8%, disease control rate 73.9%, the time to progression was 5.8 months and the overall survival 13.7 months. There showed the positive relationship between the curative effects (either time to progression or overall survival) and chemotherapy cycles. The main toxicities were bone marrow suppression, nausea and vomiting. There was no chemotherapy-related death. The data suggested that the combination regimen with pemetrexed plus carboplatin is an active and tolerable treatment plan for Chinese elderly patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma, in which the side effects were tolerable and manageable.