Patient-reported physical function is associated with survival following lung resection for NSCLC.

BACKGROUND

We investigated the association between preoperative quality of life (QoL) and long-term survival in patients undergoing surgical resection for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODS

Retrospective analysis was conducted on 388 consecutive patients who completed the Quality of Life assessment through the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 and lung cancer specific module (LC13), prior to anatomical lung resection for NSCLC (2014-2018). Survival distribution was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox proportional hazard regression and competing risk regression analyses were used to assess the independent association of preoperative patient-reported outcomes with overall and cancer-specific survival.

RESULTS

Higher score in patient-reported Physical Functioning was significantly associated with longer overall survival (Figure 1). Factors significantly associated with poorer overall survival remained older age (p=0.005), low BMI (p=0.007), male sex (p<0.001) and nodal involvement (p=0.007). Competing regression analysis found that worse baseline lung cancer-specific dyspnoea (p=0.03), low Body Mass Index (p=0.01), worse Performance Status (p=0.03) and lymph node involvement (p=0.01) were significantly associated with poorer cancer-specific survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher patient-reported Physical Function score was associated with longer overall survival after resection. Our study highlights the significance of routinely collecting QoL data to aid preoperative decision making in NSCLC.