108 Background: Survival benefits of second-line chemotherapy such as weekly paclitaxel (wPTX) for patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC) were shown in several phase 3 trials. However, these trials included a small proportion of elderly patients, and few elderly patients receive second-line therapy in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of second-line chemotherapy with wPTX between elderly and non-elderly patients. Methods: The subjects of this retrospective study were AGC patients who received wPTX as second-line chemotherapy between January 2002 and August 2014, fulfilling the following selection criteria; 1) pathologically proven metastatic or recurrent gastric adenocarcinoma, 2) receipt of wPTX after platinum or fluoropyrimidine containing chemotherapy. Patients were divided into two groups by age: ≥ 75 years old (elderly group) and < 75 years old (non-elderly group). Response rate (RR) in patients with measurable lesions, overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), post-progression survival (PPS) and adverse events were evaluated. Hazard ratios of survival were adjusted by prognostic factors using Cox proportional hazard model. Results: A total of 272 patients, 31 elderly and 241 non-elderly, were selected in this study. RRs were 6.2% (1/16) in the elderly group and 12.7% (15/118) in the non-elderly group (p = 0.69). While PFS was similar between two groups (median 2.4 vs. 3.6 months, adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.18, p = 0.46), the elderly group showed shorter OS than the non-elderly group (median 5.1 vs. 6.1 months, adjusted HR 1.49, p = 0.06), associated with relatively shorter PPS (median 2.2 vs. 2.6 months, adjusted HR 1.40, p = 0.11). There were no remarkable differences in the incidences of grade 3 or higher adverse events between the two groups (hematologic 38.7 vs. 41.1%; non-hematologic 25.8 vs. 23.7%). No treatment related deaths were observed in either group. Third-line chemotherapy was administered in 19.4% of elderly group and 35.3% of non-elderly group (p = 0.11). Conclusions: It is suggested that second-line chemotherapy with wPTX for AGC may be tolerable and have some clinical benefits for elderly patients as well as for non-elderly patients.
Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness of Second-Line Chemotherapy in Elderly Patients with Advanced Gastric Cancer