Frailty Is Associated With Adverse Postoperative Outcomes After Lung Cancer Resection

Frailty is an important predictor of outcomes after noncardiac surgery. The 5-factor Modified Frailty Index (mFI-5) is a recently developed frailty metric that has not been adequately evaluated in relation to surgical therapy for lung cancer. We evaluated whether the mFI-5 is predictive of clinical and administrative outcomes after anatomical lung resection for cancer.

Data in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Database were used to evaluate the relationship of mFI-5 to outcomes of patients undergoing elective anatomical lung resection for cancer from 2015 to 2018 using logistic regression analyses. Results were compared with validated risk predictors, including the American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Classification and the Charlson Comorbidity Index.

The mFI-5 score could be calculated for 36,587 patients. On univariate analyses, mFI-5 was significantly associated with all clinical and administrative outcomes in an incremental pattern (p < 0.0001 for each). On multivariate analyses, mFI-5 was significantly associated in an incremental pattern with 13 of 15 postoperative complication and administrative outcome categories; the exceptions were cardiovascular complications and 30-day mortality. The overall performance of the frailty metric mFI-5 was similar to that of the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the Charlson Comorbidity Index.

The mFI-5 is independently predictive of almost all outcomes after lung resection for cancer. It can be calculated from data typically collected for thoracic surgical patients. Assessment of surgical candidates using mFI-5 may be useful in risk prediction and may identify patients who would benefit from mitigation of increased surgical risk related to frailty.