Age, obesity and tobacco worsen the prognosis in lung cancer
Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer death, accounting for 18,4% of all cancer deaths in men and women combined. There is a high prevalence of comorbidity in patients with lung cancer, especially among the elderly, men, those diagnosed with advanced stage tumors, smokers, and obese patients.
The most frequent comorbidities are Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease o COPD (36,6%), diabetes (20,7%) and heart failure (16,8%). An international study in which, among other institutions, the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada and Andalusian School of Public Health, has concluded that the presence of other concomitant diseases, more than the number of comorbidities, was associated with an increased risk of mortality from lung cancer in the short term in Spain. Comorbidity was a consistent and independent predictor of mortality among lung cancer patients, six months after diagnosis.
“The most common comorbid conditions were age-related diseases, obesity, and smoking. Our findings highlight the need to develop specific preventive interventions and more personalized clinical guidelines to address the needs of lung cancer patients with one or more comorbidities in Spain ”, the authors explain in the conclusions of their study.
Thus, the study, posted in BMC Cancer indicates that patients with one or two or more comorbidities had a 40% higher risk of overall mortality than those without comorbidities. The study identified 1.259 adult patients with lung cancer, from two Spanish population-based cancer registries, Girona and Granada.