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Background Adjuvant chemotherapy(ACT)after radical surgery is known to improve the survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC).However,there are few studies reporting the impact of age on the efficacy of ACT in NSCLC patients.Methods All patients who received postoperative ACT in the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences between 2001 and 2013 with complete records in the database of the hospital and met the inclusion criteria were enrolled in this study for analysis.The primary end point was disease-free survival(DFS)in terms of age.Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier estimates,log-rank tests and Cox's proportional hazards regression analysis.Propensity score matching(PSM)was used,and survival analysis of the match data was carried out.Results Of 1,129 patients with stage IB to stage Ⅲ NSCLC who underwent radical resection,865 who met the inclusion criteria were analyzed.Of them,156(18.0%)patients were older than 65 years,and the remaining 763(82.0%)patients were younger than 65 years as the control group.There was no significant difference in DFS between the two age groups before propensity score was matched(100.714 weeks [95%CI 84.421,117.007] vs.99.571 weeks [95%CI 82.621,116.522],P=0.555).Furthermore,no significant impact of age on DFS was observed between the PS-matched groups(104.857 weeks [95%CI 81.495,128.220] vs.97.429 weeks [95%CI 81.743,113.114],P=0.328).Conclusion The results suggest that DFS was similar regardless of age of NSCLC patients.Besides,postoperative radiotherapy could probably decrease the survival benefit from postoperative ACT in older patients.ACT should not be withheld from elderly patients.However,this conclusion is limited by the nature of this retrospective study,and therefore prospective trials are required for further verification.