Study: Elderly lung cancer patients should get standard chemo too

Nadia
Current Event Posting Number 1
Topic: Health
Writer: Miriam Falco
Publication Name: CNN
Date of Publication: June 5, 2010
Length: 431 words/ 1 page

Summary: Lung cancer patients should be getting a more effective treatment of chemotherapy, according to a new study that was held on June 5, 2010 at a cancer conference. The new study presented at the conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists also known as (ASCO) in Chicago, has shown that elderly patients have lived longer, and cancer-free when they had gone through the new treatment of chemotherapy. "These results demonstrate that a more intensive regimen given to younger patients can be effective and tolerable in this (elderly) group," stated, the leader in reserach,Dr. Elisabeth Quiox. Patients that are younger than the age of 70 are offered a standard chemotherapy, which includes a combination of two drugs. Unlike the younger patients, elderly patients are given only one chemotherapy drug (which does not include a combination), since doctors fear that they may not be able to tolerate or handle the side effects of the drug. Researchers located in France have studied that, 451 patients between the ages of 70 and 89 are all diagnosed with "advanced non-small cell lung cancer", which is the most common form of lung cancer.

Conclusion: In conclusion, the elderly patients were divided into two groups. Half of the patients were given the more "effective" form of chemotherapy, which is the combination of two drugs, paclitaxel and carboplatin, while the other half were given a single chemo drug -- either gemcitabine or vinorelbine.

In my opinion, in which outcome provides the best care for the patient, that should be the treatment used for all patients, no matter what the side affect. If the side affect is too strong for an elderly, then obviously the smart thing which should NOT be done is giving the elderly patient a/the drug which will clearly have bad side-affects that the patient cannot handle