WCLC 2022 | First-line treatment decision making for elderly patients with NSCLC

Rajwanth Veluswamy, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, discusses first-line treatment options for elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients will undergo targeted treatment if they have an actionable mutation, the toxicities of which are favorable over chemotherapy, particularly for elderly patients. However, for those who do not have actionable mutations, which are the majority of patients, treatment will depend on PD-L1 status. Patients with PD-L1 status above 50% will receive immunotherapy alone, and patients with a PD-L1 status below 50% will receive immunochemotherapy. Dr Veluswamy emphasizes the importance of indicators of functional status, such as the geriatric assessment, for predicting response to treatment in elderly patients rather than age alone. This interview took place at the IASLC 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer congress in Vienna, Austria.