A summary of dose reductions due to AEs in the safety population age-group subsets (<70 years, ≥65 years, and ≥70 years) demonstrated that significantly more patients in the docetaxel + carboplatin arm than in the pemetrexed + carboplatin arm had at least one dose reduction due to AEs: pemetrexed + carboplatin 9.0, 2.9, and 5.9 %, respectively; docetaxel + carboplatin 23.5, 39.4, and 40.0 %, respectively; p = 0.013, 0.001, and 0.023, respectively). Notably, this difference was driven predominantly by neutropenia in the docetaxel + carboplatin arm, which led to at least one dose reduction

due to an AE significantly more often in each of the age-group subsets: pemetrexed + carboplatin 2.2, 0.0, and 0.0 %, selleck chemicals respectively; docetaxel + carboplatin 17.6, 24.2, and 25.0 %, respectively; Selleckchem Lonafarnib p < 0.001, 0.002, and 0.050, respectively). 3.5 Post-Discontinuation Anti-Cancer Therapy Within the <70-, ≥65-, and ≥70-year age-group subsets, 62.9, 40.0, and 17.6 % of pemetrexed + carboplatin-treated

patients, respectively, and 48.2, 48.5, and 55.0 % of docetaxel + Androgen Receptor antagonist carboplatin-treated patients, respectively, received post-study therapy. Among the Q-ITT patients, 55.7 % of pemetrexed + carboplatin-treated patients and 49.5 % of docetaxel + carboplatin-treated patients received post-discontinuation therapy [2]. Within the <70-, ≥65-, and ≥70-year age-group subsets, the most common post-discontinuation chemotherapeutic agent used in pemetrexed + carboplatin-treated patients was docetaxel (used in 23.6, 11.4, and 5.9 %, respectively), and in docetaxel + carboplatin-treated patients it was

pemetrexed (14.1, 12.1, and 15.0 %, respectively). Within the <70-, ≥65-, and ≥70-year age-group subsets, post-study epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors were received by 22.5, 14.3, and 11.8 % of pemetrexed + carboplatin-treated patients, respectively, and by 28.2, 27.3, and 20.0 % of docetaxel + carboplatin-treated patients, respectively. Post-study radiotherapy was received by 21.3, 8.6, and 0.0 % of pemetrexed + carboplatin-treated patients, respectively, and by 22.4, 21.2, and 25.0 % PD184352 (CI-1040) of docetaxel + carboplatin-treated patients, respectively. 4 Discussion and Conclusion Retrospective studies suggest that elderly patients can receive a clinical benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy similar to that seen in younger patients; toxicity may be increased in this population but is still generally acceptable. Nevertheless, physicians still hesitate to use these regimens in elderly patients [7, 8]. Mortality rates for elderly patients with lung cancer have increased over the decades [9]. This could be partly related to lower chemotherapy usage in the elderly [10]. We performed a retrospective analysis of elderly patient subsets (aged ≥65 and ≥70 years) within a phase III trial evaluating pemetrexed + carboplatin and docetaxel + carboplatin in advanced nonsquamous NSCLC [2].