BACKGROUND: Elderly patients with uterine cervical cancer reportedly have a poorer prognosis than younger patients. Until now, the benefit of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for elderly patients has been considered limited. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 49 women with cervical cancer aged >70 years primarily treated with radiotherapy (RT) or CCRT in our institute between 2003 and 2014. Treatment compliance, toxicity, and survival benefit were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 49 patients were identified in this retrospective analysis. Twenty patients with a median age of 75.4 years (range 70-77) were treated with CCRT and 29 patients with a median age of 77.9 years (range 70-89) underwent RT. In the CCRT group, 14 patients (70%) completed CCRT consisting of radiotherapy and 5 courses of cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil including patients requiring a dose reduction of chemotherapy. The median overall survival (OS) in the CCRT and RT groups was 66.9 and 60.1 months, respectively (p = 0.156). The most common grade 3/4 acute toxicity was hyponatremia (35.0%), followed by neutropenia (15.0%) and diarrhea (10.0%) in the CCRT group, while this was anemia (17.2%) followed by radiation enteritis (10.3%) in the RT group. CONCLUSIONS: CCRT was well tolerated in elderly patients with cervical cancer. Careful attention should be paid to the different characteristics of treatment-related toxicities in this group compared with younger patients.
BACKGROUND: Elderly patients with uterine cervical cancer reportedly have a poorer prognosis than younger patients. Until now, the benefit of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for elderly patients has been considered limited. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 49 women with cervical cancer aged >70 years primarily treated with radiotherapy (RT) or CCRT in our institute between 2003 and 2014. Treatment compliance, toxicity, and survival benefit were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 49 patients were identified in this retrospective analysis. Twenty patients with a median age of 75.4 years (range 70-77) were treated with CCRT and 29 patients with a median age of 77.9 years (range 70-89) underwent RT. In the CCRT group, 14 patients (70%) completed CCRT consisting of radiotherapy and 5 courses of cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil including patients requiring a dose reduction of chemotherapy. The median overall survival (OS) in the CCRT and RT groups was 66.9 and 60.1 months, respectively (p = 0.156). The most common grade 3/4 acute toxicity was hyponatremia (35.0%), followed by neutropenia (15.0%) and diarrhea (10.0%) in the CCRT group, while this was anemia (17.2%) followed by radiation enteritis (10.3%) in the RT group. CONCLUSIONS: CCRT was well tolerated in elderly patients with cervical cancer. Careful attention should be paid to the different characteristics of treatment-related toxicities in this group compared with younger patients.
Authors: Penny Fang; Weiguo He; Daniel R Gomez; Karen E Hoffman; Benjamin D Smith; Sharon H Giordano; Reshma Jagsi; Grace L Smith Journal: Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys Date: 2017-02-01 Impact factor: 7.038