Paesmans et al evaluated prognostic factors affecting survival for a patient with small cell undifferentiated lung cancer. Prognosis is often poor, with only 1.8% of patients in the study surviving 5 years. The authors are members of the European Lung Cancer Working Party.
NOTE: A related study by Paesmans for non-small cell lung cancer is reported in 27.09.12 (above).
Parameters:
(1) disease extent
(2) Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS)
(3) age of the patient in years
(4) percent neutrophils in the differential count
(5) gender
Extent |
KPS |
Age |
Neutrophils |
Gender |
Group |
limited |
>= 80 |
< 60 |
NA |
NA |
I |
limited |
>= 80 |
>= 60 |
NA |
NA |
II |
limited |
<= 70 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
II |
dissem |
>= 80 |
NA |
<= 75% |
NA |
II |
dissem |
>= 80 |
NA |
> 75% |
NA |
III |
dissem |
<= 70 |
NA |
NA |
female |
III |
dissem |
<= 70 |
NA |
NA |
male |
IV |
where:
• Limited disease was defined as tumor confined to the primary site, mediastinum, and homolateral subclavicular lymph nodes. Malignant pleural effusion indicates disseminated disease (page525)..
Group |
Median Survival |
I |
60 weeks |
II |
47 weeks |
III |
36 weeks |
IV |
28 weeks |
Survival >= 2 years was associated with:
(1) Karnofsky Performance Scale
(2) complete response to therapy (after 3 or more chemotherapy cycles)
Factors associated with complete response:
(1) limited disease
(2) female gender
(3) absence of anemia (hemoglobin >= 12 g/dL)
Specialty: Hematology Oncology, Surgery, general, Pulmonology
ICD-10: ,