Perceived cognitive impairment in patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer: a cross-sectional study

The aim of this study was to identify perceived cognitive impairment and its associated factors in patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer.

This cross-sectional analysis utilized pretreatment data sourced from an ongoing multicenter longitudinal investigation (registration: ChiCTR2300076232). A total of 340 participants were enrolled between September 2023 and March 2024 from two public hospitals in Anhui Province, China. The well-validated Chinese version of the FACT-Cog was used to collect the information of perceived cognitive function. Data on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, as well as cancer-related symptoms were obtained through structured questionnaires and medical records.

170 Patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer and 170 non-cancer controls matched in age and gender. Patients scored significantly lower on the FACT-Cog and four subscales than controls (all P < 0.05). The prevalence of perceived cognitive impairment in patients was 15.3%, which was significantly higher than 6.5% in controls (P = 0.009). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that fatigue [(95% CI: -2.527 ∼ -1.701); P < 0.001], gender [(95% CI: -15.722 ∼ -4.670); P < 0.001], age [(95% CI: -0.711 ∼ -0.082); P = 0.014] and depression [(95% CI: 0.222 ∼ 1.963); P = 0.014] emerged as significant predictors of perceived cognitive impairment, explaining 54.5% of the total variance (P < 0.001).

Patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer exhibited a significant decrement in cognitive function compared to controls. Healthcare professionals ought to provide prompt attention and implement early rehabilitative interventions to prevent further cognitive decline subsequent to the initiation of systemic treatment.