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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 28, 2015; 21(16): 4911-4918
Published online Apr 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i16.4911
Published online Apr 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i16.4911
Palliative chemotherapy for gastroesophageal cancer in old and very old patients: A retrospective cohort study at the National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg
Anne Katrin Berger, Stefanie Zschaebitz, Dirk Jäger, Georg-Martin Haag, National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Christine Komander, NCT Clinical Cancer Registry, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Author contributions: Berger AK participated in study concepts and design, data acquisition, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation and editing; Haag GM participated in data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation, quality control of data and algorithms and statistical analysis; Komander C participated in data acquisition and manuscript preparation; Jäger D and Zschaebitz S participated in data analysis and interpretation and manuscript preparation and review; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Zentrum für Geriatrische Onkologie und Biologie in der Metropolregion Rhein Neckar (ZOBEL).
Ethics approval: The study was approved by the local Ethics Committee (Ethics Committee University of Heidelberg; S-335/2014, 28.07.2014).
Informed consent: According to local ethics policy for retrospective analysis of own anonymized clinical data, IC was not obtained.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors state that there is no conflict of interest to disclose.
Data sharing: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Anne Katrin Berger, National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 460, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. anne.berger@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Telephone: +49-6221-567229 Fax: +49-6221-567225
Received: October 8, 2014
Peer-review started: October 9, 2014
First decision: November 14, 2014
Revised: December 3, 2014
Accepted: December 19, 2014
Article in press: December 22, 2014
Published online: April 28, 2015
Peer-review started: October 9, 2014
First decision: November 14, 2014
Revised: December 3, 2014
Accepted: December 19, 2014
Article in press: December 22, 2014
Published online: April 28, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Data concerning efficacy and safety of palliative chemotherapy for gastroesophageal cancer in patients ≥ 70 years are scarce. Concerns about poor tolerability due to reduced functional status are common, and older patients are at risk for undertreatment. In our analysis of 55 patients ≥ 70 years, the survival times were in good accordance to the results of the landmark phase III trials including younger patients. Except for increased polyneuropathy, toxicity rates were also comparable. Initial Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status was a strong prognostic factor for PFS, OS and RS.