Thalidomide combined with chemotherapy in treating elderly patients with advanced gastric cancer.

AIM: The current systemic chemotherapy brings toxicity to human body, which elder patients suffer more than young people. The effective and well-tolerated treatment methods are of great importance for elderly advanced GC patients. This paper proposed an effective way of combining thalidomide with chemotherapy to treat elderly advanced GC patients, on the purpose of improving life quality and the treatment efficacy.

METHODS: In the control group, capecitabine was given with 2000 mg/m2 daily in a manner of 2 weeks on and 1 week off for elderly advanced GC patients. In the study group, thalidomide was given with 100 mg per day concurrently with chemotherapy additionally administered.

RESULTS: No significant differences were observed in the major prognostic factors among 64 eligible patients between the study and control groups. The ORRs and DCRs of the treatment and control groups showed no significant difference (P > 0.05). PFS of the study and control groups were 5.3 months (95% CI 4.5-6.2) and 4.2 months (95% CI 3.4-5.1), respectively. PFS exhibited a significant difference between the two group (P = 0.03), while the overall survivals of the patients between the two groups (10.4 months vs. 9.7 months) resulted as statistically non-significant (P = 0.47). Adverse effects were minimal in the study group, only a few patients suffered the grade 3 toxicity. The rate of drowsiness, fatigue, constipation of the study group was higher than that of the control group, and the rate of anorexia was lower (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated that thalidomide combined with capecitabine was mildly effective and safe for treating elderly patients with advanced GC.