Background and Context: Since many elder patients with NSCLC are usually complicated with coronary heart disease or angina pectoris, whether they can stand for the chemotherapy and how to carry out the chemotherapy have become serious concerns and issues for clinicians. Some patients would suffer from myocardial infarction or angina attack after the chemotherapy and have to delay or even give up their chemotherapy
Aim:To investigate the efficacy and safety of the treatment of nitroglycerin combined with docetaxel/carboplatin chemotherapy for the elderly patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) complicated with Coronary Heart Disease (CHD).
Strategy/Tactics: 70 elderly patients with NSCLC complicated with CHD were randomly divided into two groups: treatment group (n=38), in which patients received nitroglycerin combined with docetaxel/carboplatin, and control group (n=32), in which patients were given docetaxel/carboplatin only and the treatment should stop immediately if any unbearable symptom occur.
Programme/Policy Process:There was difference in efficiency rate and the disease control rate between the treatment group and the control group (52.63% vs. 25% and 65.8% vs. 40.6%, P<0.05). The median overall survival (OS) in the treatment group was 10.8 months, which were obviously longer than that of the control group (8.3 months) (P<0.05). The incidence rate of angina pectoris and myocardial infarction in the treatment group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05).
Outcomes/What was learned:Treatment with docetaxel/carboplatin combined with nitroglycerin in the elderly patients with NSCLC complicated with CHD could improve the therapeutic effect, prolong the OS and reduce the risk of CHD. Thus, this treatment program is safer and more effective so that it can be used in clinical practice.