Cytotoxic chemotherapy in advanced non–small cell lung cancer with poor performance status: A retrospective analysis from routine clinical practice

Background: Platinum-based combination chemotherapy is recommended as the standard treatment for patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but its benefit is limited to patients with performance status (PS) of 0 or 1. However, it is not clear whether these benefits apply to patients with poor performance status (PS 2 and above) and there are no predictors of outcome to suggest whom to treat. The patients with poor performance status (PS 2 and above) accounts for a significant portion (up to 30%) of patients of our practice. In this retrospective analysis, we have analyzed our experience of chemotherapy in patients with poor performance status. Method: A retrospective analysis of patients of advanced NSCLC with poor PS (ECOG PS 2 or more), treated with chemotherapy from October, 2016 to June, 2018 was done. Patients with driver mutations who were treated with first line tyrosine kinase inhibitors were excluded. Hospital case records were reviewed for baseline characteristics, treatment details, and outcome data. Kaplan-Meier curves were drawn to estimate progression free survival. Log-rank test was used to assess factors affecting survival. Data was analyzed using STATA ver 11 (StataCorp. 2009. College Station, TX: StataCorp LP). P value