Author of

• 11692

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  P2.10 - Poster Session 2 - Chemotherapy (ID 207)

  • Event: WCLC 2013
  • Type: Poster Session
  • Track: Medical Oncology
  • Presentations: 1
  • Moderators:
  • Coordinates: 10/29/2013, 09:30 - 16:30, Exhibit Hall, Ground Level

  • 11736

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    P2.10-044 - Impact of comorbidities on survival in elderly patients with non small cell lung cancer. (ID 2808)

    09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): N. Kucukoztas
    • Abstract

    Background
    Lung cancer comprises 14% of all cancers and 29% of cancer related deaths. Mean age at diagnosis is 60, therefore it’s a disease of elderly. Comorbidities are common in this group of age. Comorbidities can affect survival, quality of life, and patients’ tolerability for therapy, as well. Nevertheless, data on the effects of comorbidities over lung cancer are limited. What we aimed with this study is to use Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) in order to define and stratify the comorbidities of our elderly patients (i.e ≥65 years) with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and analyze its effect over disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS).

    Methods
    154 patients with NSCLC aged 65 and over were included in this study. Data were retrospectively collected from patients’ files. Patients’ comorbidities were classified using CCI and its effect on DFS and OS along with other prognostic factors were evaluated.

    Results
    Mean age of patients for diagnosis in this study was 70 years. Thirty patients (19,4%) had stage I disease, 17 (11%) had stage II, 46 (29,9%) had stage III, and 61 (39,6%) had stage IV disease. Fifty patients had at least one comorbid disease (min; 0 max; 6). CCI scores of the patients were as follows ; 22 patients (14,2 %) had 0 point, 59 patients (38,3 %) had 1 point, 39 patients (25,3 %) had 2 points, 22 patients (14,3%) had 3 points, 8 patients (5,2%) had 4 points, 3 patients (1,9%) had 5 points and 1 patient (0,6%) had 6 points. When patients were classified into 2 groups according to CCI scores (Group 1; CCI 0 and 1, group 2; CCI≥2), DFS of group 1 and group 2 were 13,2 and 16,9 months respectively, and OS were 21,9, and 23,1 months respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between 2 groups (p>0,1 for all comparisons). Survival rates were also similar when compared according to age-adjusted CCI scores of the two groups. The only significant predictors of both dfs and os were disease stage, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status and the presence of weight loss in multivariate Cox regression analysis.

    Conclusion
    In conclusion, comorbid diseases stratified according to the CCI were found not to be associated with DFS or OS in elderly patients with NSCLC in our study. The only predictive factors of survival were performance status, weight loss and disease stage. Negative results may be due to low validity of the CCI score in NSCLC, underreporting of comorbidities in patient files or aggressive biology of NSCLC which overrides comorbidities being the most imortant predictor of survival. Prospective studies with larger number of patients are needed to clarify these points.