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BACKGROUND Adjuvant chemotherapy after surgical resection improves outcomes for patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To the authors' knowledge, there are no published prospective trials to date of adjuvant chemotherapy after surgical resection administered exclusively in older patients. In the current study, the authors sought to evaluate the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy in older patients in a Veterans Health Administration cohort. METHODS Patients who underwent surgical resection for American Joint Committee on Cancer stages IB to III NSCLC between 2001 and 2011 were analyzed. Data regarding patient demographics and comorbidities, tumor characteristics, and primary treatment were collected. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on age at diagnosis: those aged

Background Bevacizumab is associated with an increased risk of arterial thromboembolism (ATE), however, its effect on venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains controversial. Scant data exist on factors that increase ATE/VTE risk in prostate cancer patients. We investigated the association of bevacizumab treatment and clinical factors with ATE/VTE risk in patients treated on CALGB 90401.

BACKGROUND Despite clinical trials demonstrating improved survival with adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) for patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer stages I to III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), it is unclear whether this survival benefit extends to broader populations. The current study evaluated patterns of AC use and examined the impact of AC on survival. METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted of patients in the Veterans Affairs Central Cancer Registry diagnosed with stages IB to IIIA NSCLC between 2001 and 2008. Descriptive statistics were used to examine patterns of AC use over an 8-year time period. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to estimate hazards ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) to compare mortality risk among patients treated with and without AC. RESULTS Among 14,306 patients with stages IB to IIIA NSCLC, 4929 underwent surgery and 22% of these received AC. The percentages of patients diagnosed in 2001 through 2003, 2004 through 2005, and 2006 through 2008 receiving AC were 7.0%, 29.8%, and 29.5%, respectively. There was no survival benefit with AC noted for patients diagnosed between 2001 and 2003, but AC was associated with improved survival for the period between 2004 and 2005 (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.67-0.91) and 2006 through 2008 (HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.69-0.91). Of those patients receiving AC, 89% received platinum-doublet chemotherapy. Carboplatin remained the most common agent, although cisplatin use reached 43% in the period between 2006 and 2008. The HR for cisplatin relative to carboplatin was 0.96 (95% CI, 0.80-1.15). CONCLUSIONS There was a significant increase in the use of AC between 2001 and 2008 and AC was associated with an improvement in overall survival. Cancer 2014;120:1939–1947. © 2014 American Cancer Society.

Adjuvant chemotherapy after surgical resection improves outcomes for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To the authors' knowledge, there are no published prospective trials to date of adjuvant chemotherapy after surgical resection administered exclusively in older patients. In the current study, the authors sought to evaluate the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy in older patients in a Veterans Health Administration cohort.Patients who underwent surgical resection for American Joint Committee on Cancer stages IB to III NSCLC between 2001 and 2011 were analyzed. Data regarding patient demographics and comorbidities, tumor characteristics, and primary treatment were collected. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on age at diagnosis: those aged70 years and those aged ≥70 years. The primary exposure was use of adjuvant chemotherapy. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the significance of patient characteristics. Survival curves were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and group comparisons were performed using the log-rank test.The analysis included 7593 patients who underwent surgical resection for stage IB to stage III NSCLC. Among these, 2897 patients (38%) were aged ≥70 years. The percentage of older patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy was approximately one-half that of younger patients who did so (15.3% vs 31.6%; P.0001). Carboplatin-based doublets were used most often in all patients (64.6%). Both younger patients (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval, 0.72-0.86) and older patients (hazard ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval, 0.71-0.92) were found to have a lower risk of death with receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy.Older patients derive a similar magnitude of benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy as younger patients and therefore adjuvant chemotherapy should not be withheld based on age alone.

Despite clinical trials demonstrating improved survival with adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) for patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer stages I to III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), it is unclear whether this survival benefit extends to broader populations. The current study evaluated patterns of AC use and examined the impact of AC on survival.A retrospective analysis was conducted of patients in the Veterans Affairs Central Cancer Registry diagnosed with stages IB to IIIA NSCLC between 2001 and 2008. Descriptive statistics were used to examine patterns of AC use over an 8-year time period. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to estimate hazards ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) to compare mortality risk among patients treated with and without AC.Among 14,306 patients with stages IB to IIIA NSCLC, 4929 underwent surgery and 22% of these received AC. The percentages of patients diagnosed in 2001 through 2003, 2004 through 2005, and 2006 through 2008 receiving AC were 7.0%, 29.8%, and 29.5%, respectively. There was no survival benefit with AC noted for patients diagnosed between 2001 and 2003, but AC was associated with improved survival for the period between 2004 and 2005 (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.67-0.91) and 2006 through 2008 (HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.69-0.91). Of those patients receiving AC, 89% received platinum-doublet chemotherapy. Carboplatin remained the most common agent, although cisplatin use reached 43% in the period between 2006 and 2008. The HR for cisplatin relative to carboplatin was 0.96 (95% CI, 0.80-1.15).There was a significant increase in the use of AC between 2001 and 2008 and AC was associated with an improvement in overall survival.