Adjuvant Treatment To Standard Chemotherapy Does Not Improve NSCLC Survival In the Elderly (With Video)

(See video at the end of this post of Deborah Schrag, ME, MPH, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, talking about the implications of the study.)

Adding bevacizumab to the standard chemotherapy regimen for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)—an approach approved by the FDA in 2006—did not lead to significantly increased survival rates for patients older than 65 enrolled in Medicare, according to the results of a new study by researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, published in the April 18 JAMA.

In a previous trial, adding bevacizumab to the standard carboplatin-paclitaxel treatment for NSCLC improved survival in many patients with advanced disease, but not those in the 65 and older age range. Based on the new findings, the study authors recommended that bevacizumab not be automatically administered together with carboplatin-paclitaxel for older patients with NSCLC. They also suggested that physicians exercise caution in making treatment recommendations and use bevacizumab judiciously.