Inflammation-based scoring is a useful prognostic predictor of pulmonary resection for elderly patients with clinical stage I non-small-cell lung cancer

OBJECTIVES: The number of elderly lung cancer patients requiring surgery has been increasing due to the ageing society and less invasive perioperative procedures. Elderly people usually have various comorbidities, but there are few simple and objective tools that can be used to determine prognostic factors for elderly patients with clinical stage I non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the prognostic factors of surgically treated, over 80-year old patients with clinical stage I NSCLC. METHODS: The preoperative data of 97 over 80-year old patients with clinical stage I NSCLC were collected at Nagasaki University Hospital from 1990 to 2012. As prognostic factors, inflammation-based scoring systems, including the Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS) determined by serum levels of C-reactive protein and albumin, the neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were evaluated, as well as other clinicopathological factors, including performance status, body mass index, carcinoembryonic antigen, Charlson comorbidity index and type of surgical procedure. RESULTS: The median age was 82 (range, 80-93) years. There were 62 (64.0%) clinical stage IA cases and 35 IB cases. Operations included 64 (66.0%) lobectomies, 15 segmentectomies and 18 wedge resections. The pathological stage was I in 76 (78.4%) patients, II in 12 (12.4%), III in 8 (8.2%) and IV in 1 (1.0%). Twelve (12.4%) patients underwent mediastinal lymph node dissection. Overall survival and disease-specific 5-year survival rates were 55.5 and 70.0%, respectively. The average GPS score was 0.4 (0-2). Diseasespecific 5-year survival was significantly longer with GPS 0 than with GPS 1-2. (74.2%, 53.7%, respectively, P = 0.03). Overall 5-year survival was significantly longer with GPS 0 than with GPS 1-2. (59.7%, 43.1%, respectively, P = 0.005). Both the NLR (median value = 1.9) and the PLR (median value = 117) were not correlated with disease-specific and overall 5-year survival. On multivariate analysis, pathological stage I (P = 0.01) and GPS 0 (P = 0.04, hazard ratio: 2.13, 95% confidence interval 1.036-4.393) were significant prognostic factors. CONCLUSIONS: The preoperative GPS appears to be a useful predictor of overall survival and could be a simple prognostic tool for elderly patients with clinical stage I NSCLC.
European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, 47(4), pp.e140-e145; 2015