Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of radioactive 125 I seed implantation combined with paclitaxel (PTX) for treating senile non‐small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) .Methods The clinical data in 35 patients with NSCLC in our hospi‐tal from June 2013 to August 2014 were retrospectively analyzed ,including 12 cases receiving the lung tumor radioactive 125 I seed implantation therapy(group A) ,10 cases treated with PTX combined with cisplatin (TP scheme)after receiving radioactive 125I seed implantation therapy(group B) and 13 cases only conducted TP scheme(group C) .The 21 d chemotherapy was a evaluation cycle . The adverse reactions were evaluated after 1 cycle and the curative efficacy was evaluated after 2 cycles .Results Thirty‐five cases were followed up for 6 months .The adverse reactions could be evaluated in all the cases .The short‐term efficacy could be evaluated in 34 cases .The group A had no obvious adverse reactions ,the main adverse reactions in the group B and C were bone marrow sup‐pression and digestive tract reactions without statistically significant differences (P> 0 .05) .The effective rates after 4 cycles of chemotherapy in the group A and B were 66 .7% and 80 .0% ,the clinical benefit rates were 83 .3% and 90 .0% respectively ,which were higher than 23 .1% and 53 .8% in the group C respectively ,the differences were statistically significant ( P< 0 .05 ) . Conclusion Radioactive125 I seed implantation therapy and PTX combined with radioactive 125 I seed implantation for treating senile early NSCLC are superior to the simple PTX chemotherapy ,which have high effective rate and benefit rate ,safety ,mini‐invasion and mild adverse reactions ,and can increase the patient′s living quality .