Postoperative survival of lung cancer patients: are there predictors beyond TNM?

BACKGROUND/AIM We report on survival data of 595 patients with stage I-III lung cancer with respect to TNM classification. MATERIALS AND METHODS We constructed a basic model consisting of stage and grade, and assessed the improvement of survival prediction after adding comorbidity data, spirometric data, clinical and laboratory parameters. RESULTS Body mass index (BMI) and presence of a cardiac disease reached statistical significance for prediction of overall survival in a Cox regression model. In addition to BMI (<25 kg/m(2)) and the presence of cardiovascular disease, the spirometric variable (FEV1) predicted early death (less than five months postoperatively). When the survival random forest method was employed to predict disease outcome, creatinine levels and VO2 max became additional variables of interest for predicting survival. CONCLUSION We propose that our lung cancer database may help to identify variables (aside from histomorphological variables) that are suitable for identifying patients at risk of death after surgical treatment of lung cancer.