Low Elderly Participation in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Clinical Trials

Abstract

Background: Lung cancer, with a median age at diagnosis of 70 years, is the current leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States. A lack of elderly enrollment in lung cancer clinical trials, however, has led to difficulty establishing elderly guidelines for treatment and has been highlighted by the Institute of Medicine and the American Society of Clinical Oncology as a key area for improvement. While there have been few elderly-specific clinical trials investigating chemoradiotherapy in lung cancer, there have been no elderly-specific trials investigating targeted therapy or immunotherapy and little is known about elderly outcomes with these agents.