Risk factors for postoperative complications and long-term survival in elderly lung cancer patients: a single institutional experience in Turkey.

Abstract

Lung cancer is a typical disease of elderly patients. While there are many publications in the literature on factors affecting survival, there is still no consensus on the survival impact of lymph node dissection. Our objective in this study was to evaluate prognostic factors influencing rates of complications, mortality, and survival in geriatric patients who underwent surgery for non-small cell lung cancer. Data obtained from the medical records of patients aged 70years or older with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer who underwent surgery between January 01, 2008 and December 31, 2015 were evaluated retrospectively. Of the 72 patients included, 57 (79.2%) were male and 15 (20.8%) were female. Complications were observed in 42 patients (58.3%). Nineteen patients (26.4%) developed major complications. Percent predicted forced expiratory volume in 1s (ppFEV1) and age was found to be risk factors for complications. Thirty days days mortality rate was 8.3%. Mortality was not significantly associated with low CCI, physical status, and ppFEV1 values. The 5-year survival rate was 40.5%. ppFEV1 were risk factors affecting survival, whereas radical lymph node dissection was not associated with survival. The main prognostic factors affecting long-term postoperative survival in the present study was a low postoperative ppFEV1 value. Radical lymph node dissection did not increase the risk of postoperative complications and it did not affect long-term survival in patients aged 70years or older. A key finding was that comorbidities were not associated with postoperative complications or long-term survival.