Comparison of the efficacy and safety of clinical trials of pemetrexed or gemcitabine combined with carboplatin in treatment of the elderly patients with advanced NSCLC / 中国生化药物杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the efficacy and the safety of clinical trials of pemetrexed combined with carboplatin and gemcitabine with carboplatin in treating advanced NSCLC of the elderly patients.Methods A total of one hundred and twenty-eight elderly patients with advanced NSCLC were randomly divided into two groups(n=64).The PC group in which patients were treated with pemetrexed combined with carboplatin,and the GC group in which patients were treated with gemcitabine combined with carboplatin.The effects and the safety were assessed by the following indexes, treatment efficiency,side effects,LCSS. Results The treatment efficiency of the PC group and the GC group were 34.38% and 31.25% after chemotherapy.The difference was no statistically significant between two groups.The difference of LCSS was no statistically significant between two groups.Except hair loss,the incidences of nausea and vomiting,leukopenia,thrombocytopenia and neurotoxicity (grade III-IV )in the PC group (6.25%,3.13%,4.67%,7.81%)were significant lower than those in the GC group(17.18%,20.31%,15.63%,18.75%)(P<0.05).The 1-year and 2-year survival rates of the PC and GC groups were 46.2% VS 46.8% and 13.3% VS 12.5%,respectively,with a median survival of 12.1 VS 1 1.3 months,without a statistically significant difference between two groups.Conclusion PC and GC show similar efficacy for elderly NSCLC patients,however,the toxicities in PC patients are lower than those in GC patients.Thus,pemetrexed combined with carboplatin is an effective therapeutic regimen for advanced NSCLC in elderly patients.