Abstract
Systemic treatment is the standard treatment for unresectable stage III and IV lung cancer. Nevertheless, a 5–10% death rate has been described within 30 days after the last systemic treatment, suggesting that these patient did not benefit. We analysed the 30-day mortality after start of systemic therapy.
Data were retrieved from the Netherlands National Cancer Registry. From 2010 to 2015, 26 277 patients were included. 56% were men. The median age was 65 years and 31% of patients were aged ≥70 years. 27% involved small cell lung cancer and 73% nonsmall cell lung cancer. Overall mortality within 30 days after the start of systemic treatment was 6.2%. Multivariable analysis established the prognostic influence of age, histology, number of metastatic sites and type of systemic treatment. Chemotherapy was administered in 77 hospitals, treating each 15–161 lung cancer patients with systemic therapy annually. None of the hospitals had a significantly higher 30-day mortality according to hierarchical multivariable analysis, controlling for case-mix.
In the Netherlands, the 30-day mortality rate after start of systemic therapy for lung cancer patients was comparable with earlier reports. Hospital volume did not influence the 30-day mortality rate. 30-day mortality rate is not a meaningful indicator to monitor quality of care.
Abstract
30-day mortality rate after first-line systemic therapy for lung cancer does not seem to be a meaningful indicator to monitor quality of care http://ow.ly/2cWn30lDlpW
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: J.A. Burgers reports having served on advisory boards for Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca and Roche outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: R.A. Damhuis has nothing to disclose.
- Received February 14, 2018.
- Accepted August 24, 2018.
- Copyright ©ERS 2018
This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0.