Clinical impact of postprogression survival for overall survival in elderly patients (aged 75 years or older) with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer.

Introduction: The effects of first-line single-agent chemotherapy on overall survival (OS) might be confounded by subsequent treatments in elderly patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We, therefore, aimed to evaluate whether progression-free survival (PFS), postprogression survival (PPS), or tumor response might be a valid surrogate endpoint for OS in this patient population.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of 58 elderly patients with advanced NSCLC, who received first-line single-agent cytotoxic chemotherapy at our institution between October 2003 and November 2013.