Outcomes of lobectomy in 'active' octogenarians with clinical stage I non-small-cell lung cancer.

Abstract

In octogenarians with early stage of lung cancer, sublobar resection has been shown to be no inferior survival to lobectomy. However, some octogenarians remain physically and mentally active. We retrospectively studied 65 octogenarians who underwent curative resection for clinical stage I NSCLC (excluding adenocarcinoma in situ). All patients were assessed by cardiologists and underwent stair-climbing tests (five flights, 18 m) and cognitive function tests. Lobectomy was performed in patients who could climb 5 flights of stairs without stopping or oxygen desaturation of >4%. The actuarial survival rate was 68.6% at 5 years, and the median survival time was 109.2 months. Forty-three patients met the criteria for lobectomy. As compared with sublobar resection, lobectomy was associated with significantly higher rates of overall survival (78.4% vs. 48.5%; p = 0.02) and disease-specific survival (88.4% vs. 61.7%; p = 0.02) at 5 years. On multivariate analysis, male sex (hazard ratio, 3.827; 1.382-10.596) and sublobar resection (2.261; 1.054-5.360) were independent risk factors for survival. Mental disorders occurred in 6 patients (9.2%), and their score on preoperative cognitive function tests was significantly lower than that of patients without mental disorders (22.7 vs. 26.0, p <0.01). Outcomes of lobectomy are good in physically and mentally competent octogenarians.