Zhen He¹, Sun Qian², Mingzhi Zhang³, Xiaobing Chen¹, Chunyan Chen², Ruijie Li², Hongqiang Guo¹, Qiming Wang¹, Yufeng Wu¹, Guangyin Wu⁴

¹Department of Oncology,Ward 2 Henan Cancer Hospital, ²Department of Oncology,Henan Provincial Chest Hospital, ³Department of Oncology,The First Affiiated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, ⁴Department ofRadiotherapy, Henan Provicial People's Hospital

Objective:To investigate the efficacy and safety ofthe treatment of nitroglycerin combined with docetaxel/carboplatin chemotherapyfor the elderly patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)complicated with Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). 

Method: 70 elderlypatients with NSCLC complicated with CHD were randomly divided into two groups:treatment group (n=38), in which patients received nitroglycerin combined withdocetaxel/carboplatin, and control group (n=32), in which patients were givendocetaxel/carboplatin only and the treatment should stop immediately if anyunbearable symptom occur.

Result: There was difference in efficiencyrate and the disease control rate between the treatment group and the controlgroup (52.63% vs. 25% and 65.8% vs. 40.6%, P<0.05). Themedian overall survival (OS) in the treatment group was 10.8 months, which wereobviously longer than that of the control group (8.3 months) (P<0.05).The incidence rate of angina pectoris and myocardial infarction in thetreatment group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Treatment with docetaxel/carboplatin combined with nitroglycerinin the elderly patients with NSCLC complicated with CHD could improve thetherapeutic effect, prolong the OS andreduce the risk of CHD. Thus, thistreatment program is safer and more effective so that it can be used inclinical practice.

Key Words: Geriatric Oncology  NSCLC Nitroglycerin