7584 Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of length of hospital stay (LOS) following surgical resection of stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) on long-term survival. Methods: We reviewed the records of patients undergoing surgical resection for stage I NSCLC at our institution between 1990–2003. Patients not surviving hospitalization related to their surgery were excluded from analysis. Multivariate analysis was utilized to evaluate the impact of age, gender, tumor histology, tumor stage, LOS, and type of operation (lobar or sublobar) on long-term (>5 year) survival. As a secondary analysis, Kaplan-Meier survival curves of patients stratified according to LOS were compared using the log-rank test. Two-tailed p-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 730 patients underwent lobectomy (n=518) or sublobar resection during the study time period. There were 18 (2.5%) operative or in-hospital mortalities. Median LOS was 6 (range 1–81) and 7 (range 1–46) days in the lobar and sublobar cohorts, respectively. Patients with a longer hospital stay (≥14 days) had significantly worse 5- and 10-year overall survival rates as compared to those with a shorter hospitalization (lobectomy: 5-year- 60.3% vs 33.8%; 10-year-27.3% vs 8.4%; p<0.001; sublobar: 5-year-44.3% vs 11.7%; 10-year-9.9% vs 0%; p=0.006). There were 171 patients with extended clinical follow-up who had survived at least 5 years (mean follow-up = 88.1 ± 2.0 months). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that LOS predicted long-term survival independent of patient age, gender, tumor histology, tumor stage, and type of operation (p=0.013). Conclusions: LOS following surgical resection of stage I NSCLC is an independent predictor of long-term survival. These survival differences related to hospital stay may be related to underlying medical co-morbidities important to the decision making regarding therapy of patients with otherwise resectable stage I lung cancer. Prospective assessment of medical co-morbidities may be an important initiative for future treatment planning of early stage lung cancer patients. No significant financial relationships to disclose.
Variation in center-level frailty burden and the impact of frailty on long-term survival in patients undergoing elective repair for abdominal aortic aneurysms
