Age does not impair the efficacy of immunochemotherapy in patients with metastatic renal carcinoma

Abstract

Purpose: Based on the increasing proportion of elderly cancer patients, we compared the efficacy of subcutaneous cytokine based home therapy in older (age ≥ 60 years) and younger (age < 60 years) patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Patients and methods: As a rule, patients at an age of 60 years or older received a 20% dose reduction of sc IL-2. Treatment consisted of (A) sc interferon-α2a (sc INF-α2a), sc interleukin-2 (sc IL-2), (B) sc IFN-α2a, sc IL-2 and iv 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or (C) sc IFN-α2a, sc IL-2 and iv 5-FU combined with po 13- cis-retinoic acid (po 13cRA). Results: Patient age groups ≥ 60 years ( n = 174) and <60 years ( n = 251) showed no significant difference in objective response (27% versus 31%), in median overall survival (22 months versus 19 months), and in progression-free survival (6 months versus 5 months). Within the elderly patients group, median overall survival was 20 months (pts. 60–64 years) versus 23 months (pts. ≥ 65 years) and median progression-free survival was 4 months (pts. 60–64 years) versus 8 months (pts. ≥ 65 years). Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that patient age and related IL-2 dose reduction do not impair the efficacy of sc-IL-2 plus sc-INF-2a based outpatient immunochemotherapy in metastastic renal carcinoma.