Introduction: At an advanced age, the selection of patients that fit for cancer therapies remains difficult. In fact, elderly patients often have comorbidities and other characteristics that make the selection of treatment daunting.

Aim: To compare clinicopathologic and treatment features between young and elderly patients with lung cancer.

Methods: This is a retrospective, comparative study including patients with confirmed lung cancer treated between 2018 et 2020. Two groups were defined (G1: age? 65 years old; G2: age< 65 years old).

Results: During the study period, 462 patients were included [G1: 186 patients (40.3%);G2: 276 patients (59.7%)]. The elderly group contained more chronic and comorbid diseases. Time to diagnosis (duration from medical consultation to diagnosis) was more important in G1 (P=0.049). Among elderly patients, performance status was more deteriorated. We didn?t find any significant difference concerning biology features except hyperleukocytosis in younger patients (P=0.006). We also compared the tumor characteristics (TNM stage, histology, localization) and there was no difference between the two groups. However, elderly patients seem to have more cerebral metastatic localization (P=0,020). More than 80% of both groups did not undergo surgical resection. Comparing the effectiveness and toxicity of the different treatments, we didn?t find any significant differences between the two groups. 

Conclusion: We didn?t find any significant differences between the two groups concerning clinicopathologic and treatments features. Elderly patients may be a relevant subgroup of lung cancer patients who must be included in studies of new strategies for disease detection and management.