Outcome of surgery for lung cancer in young and elderly patients

It has been suggested that lung cancer follows a more aggressive course and has a poorer prognosis in young patients than in elderly patients. We conducted this study to determine whether the basal characteristics and survival of young patients undergoing surgical resection of lung cancer differ from those of elderly patients.

Eighty patients who underwent surgery for lung cancer at our hospital between 1989 and 2004 were divided into two groups according to age. Group 1 comprised 50 patients aged 45 years or younger and group 2 comprised 30 patients aged 70 years or older. The patients' medical records were reviewed with respect to age, gender, histological diagnosis, coexisting diseases, smoking history, postoperative staging, type of operation, and postoperative morbidity, mortality, and survival results.

The average ages were 40.2 +/- 3.77 years (range, 29-45 years) in group 1 and 72.2 +/- 2.53 years (range, 70-80 years) in group 2. The incidence of postoperative complications was significantly higher in group 2 (P = 0.02). However, the 5-year survival rates for patients who underwent surgery for non-small cell lung cancer did not differ between groups 1 and 2, at 33.3% versus 21.3%, respectively (P = 0.09).

The incidence of adenocarcinoma was higher in the young patients, whose prognosis was slightly better than that of the elderly patients. Coexisting diseases and postoperative complications were the major factors that adversely affected the prognosis of the elderly patients.