Low forced vital capacity predicts poor prognosis in gastric cancer patients

Preoperative pulmonary function assessment is used to select surgical candidates and predict the occurrence of postoperative complications. The present study enrolled 1210 gastric cancer patients (949 males and 261 females). Forced vital capacity (FVC) and maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV) were measured as a percent of predicted values. We then analyzed associations between patient pulmonary function and both prognosis and postoperative complications. Patient 1-, 3- and 5-year overall survival rates were 88.8%, 65.7% and 53.0%, respectively. FVC and MVV optimal cutoff values were 87.0 (P=0.003) and 83.6 (P=0.026), respectively. Low FVC and low MVV were associated with higher rates of postoperative fever (23.8% vs. 13.9%, P<0.001; 17.8% vs. 13.3%, P=0.049, respectively) and poor patient prognosis (5-year overall survival: 43.5% vs. 57.6%, P=0.003; 51.8% vs. 54.3%, P=0.026, respectively). Only low FVC was an independent prognostic predictor for gastric cancer (P=0.012). In subgroup analyses, FVC was not associated with stage I or II gastric cancer patient prognoses (P>0.05), but low FVC was an independent risk factor for poor prognosis in stage III gastric cancer cases (P=0.004). These findings indicate that low FVC is predictive of poorer prognosis and higher risk of postoperative fever in gastric cancer patients.