Single-center retrospective study of trends and predictors of quality of life in lung cancer survivors

A retrospective study of data in the Yale Lung Cancer Biorepository (Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, CT) evaluated LACT-L HRQOL scores of survivors of early-stage NSCLC (n=355), advanced-stage NSCLC (n=158), and SCLC (n=21) at diagnosis, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years. The average FACT-L scores at diagnosis in these three groups were 121.0 ± 11.4; 109.2 ± 18.7; and 98.7 ± 20.2, respectively. At all timepoints, HRQOL was higher in patients with early-stage NSCLC compared with advanced-stage NSCLC. In patients with early- and advanced-stage NSCLC, HRQOL was nonsignificantly higher at 1 and 2 years than at diagnosis. At NSCLC diagnosis, higher HRQOL was associated with older age, better performance status, physical activity, adenocarcinoma histology, and (in advanced-stage disease) anticipated chemotherapy. The authors conclude that among lung cancer patients, the HRQOL scores were impacted by patient factors, tumor factors, and treatment factors.