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J. Chen



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    P1.10 - Poster Session 1 - Chemotherapy (ID 204)

    • Event: WCLC 2013
    • Type: Poster Session
    • Track: Medical Oncology
    • Presentations: 1
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      P1.10-034 - Weight Gain as a Prognostic Factor on Patient Outcomes<br /> In Advanced, Nonsquamous, Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (ID 1905)

      09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): J. Chen

      • Abstract

      Background
      Patients with advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have a poor prognosis and low survival rates. One of the first notable symptoms of advanced lung cancer is unexplained weight loss. We evaluated weight gain (> 5% post baseline), as an early prognostic factor for clinical outcome, in advanced nonsquamous, NSCLC patients.

      Methods
      This retrospective analysis reports on three randomized phase III studies with survival and response data from a total of 2301 advanced, nonsquamous NSCLC patients who received pemetrexed or other chemotherapy plus a platinum or targeted agent, as first-line therapy. Body weight was recorded before and after treatment by each study’s schedule. Baseline weight was defined as the last non-missing weight measure before first treatment. Post baseline weight was defined as the maximum weight measured after starting treatment. Patients were analyzed using log-rank test and adjusted Cox modeling to assess the relationship between weight gain and overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Logistic regression was used to assess the association between baseline covariates and post-baseline weight gain.

      Results
      Patients were a mean age of 61 years (range 26 – 86) and most were of Caucasian descent (77.0%). A majority of patients had adenocarcinoma (73.8%), were male (59.8%) with an ECOG performance status (PS) of 0/1/2 (38.5%/60.2%/1.4%). Many patients were smokers or former smokers (55.7%) with Stage IV disease (83.1 %), according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer, editions. 5/6 and had an average weight at baseline of 71.4 kg. A total of 421 (18.3%) patients had a >5% increase in weight (>5% subgroup) after baseline with a statistically significant increase in OS and PFS. Median OS was 16.7 months for patients in the >5% subgroup versus 10.7 months for patients who gained <5% weight (< 5% subgroup; [n=1880]; p<0.001). PFS was 6.9 months for the >5% subgroup versus 4.8 months for <5% subgroup; p<0.001). Differences in overall response rate (ORR = CR + PR) and disease control rate (DCR = CR + PR + SD) were also significant. ORR was 50.8% for >5% subgroup versus 25.4% for < 5% subgroup (p<0.001). DCR was 91.5% for >5% subgroup and 63.6% for <5% subgroup (p<0.001). Cox modeling revealed patients in the >5% subgroup had significantly longer survival (HR=0.56, [95% CI 0.49-0.64]; p<0.001) than patients with <5% subgroup, after adjusting for baseline age (<65 versus 65), sex, ECOG PS (0 versus 1/2), histology (adenocarcinoma versus others), and study. Similar significant results were also found for PFS. Logistic regression indicated a significant association between weight gain and age. More patients aged <65 had a >5% weight gain (p<0.001).

      Conclusion
      This exploratory analysis showed that substantial weight gain (>5%) occurred after initiation of platinum-based chemotherapy in approximately 20% of advanced/metastatic, nonsquamous NSCLC patients. There was a positive correlation between weight gain and improved, OS, PFS and response in patients treated in these phase III studies.