Prediction of Survival Time in Advanced Lung Cancer: A Retrospective Study in Home-Based Palliative Care Unit

Background: There is a large group of patients suffering from lung cancer and receiving home hospice care in China. However, little is known about the prediction of their survival time. The purpose of this study was to determine whether quality of life independently predicts survival among advanced lung cancer survivors who are receiving home-based palliative care. Methods: In this retrospective study, we analyzed data from 937 advanced lung cancer patients who had received home-based palliative care between March 2010 and March 2020. We used Kaplan-Meier survival curves to determine the factors associated with survival time and applied the Cox proportional hazards model to examine the effect of quality of life on survival. Results: The study included 928 patients with a mean age of 63 years; and 72.1% of them were men. Factors associated with shortened survival included age, sex, place of residence, weight loss, anorexia, nausea, edema, quality of life, and Karnofsky performance status. After adjusting for other variables in a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model, we found that quality of life was an independent positive predictor of survival. Conclusions: As an independent factor predicting the survival of advanced lung cancer patients, quality of life should be taken seriously. Medical staff and healthcare workers need to pay special attention to this predictive factor since it may serve as early risk identification indicator for professionals who provide home-based palliative care, helping them to create effective personalized care plans.