Abstract
Purpose: Anemia has been associated with poor prognosis in patients with cancer across several cancer types. It has been identified as a prognostic factor in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have undergone surgery or chemoradiotherapy. However, there are only a few reports that have evaluated the prognostic significance of anemia in patients with NSCLC undergoing stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Material and Methods: A total of 77 patients were enrolled this study. The pretreatment hemoglobin (Hb) levels, within 2 weeks before SBRT, were available for all patients. The median age of the participants (56 men, 21 women) was 80 (range, 50-90) years. The median Hb level was 12.8 (range, 7.8-18.3) g/dL. The median follow-up period was 24 (range, 1-87) months. Results: Local recurrence was observed in 8 (10.4%) cases during the follow-up period. The 1- and 2-year local control (LC) rates were 94.8 and 86.4%, respectively. Seventeen (22.1%) patients died during the follow-up period. The 1- and 2-year overall survival (OS) rates were 93.1 and 85.2%, respectively. Univariate analysis identified anemia and body mass index as significant prognostic factors for predicting OS. On multivariate analysis, anemia was confirmed to be the only significant factor (p = 0.02469). Conclusion: Our data suggest that anemia is a prognostic factor for predicting the OS rate in patients with early-stage NSCLC treated with SBRT.
Anemia is a Significant Prognostic Factor in Overall Survival of Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy
