Outcomes and Prognostic Factors of Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Retrospective Study

Background: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a high grade neuroendocrine tumor, and has aggressive nature, so the majority of cases are presented with extensive disease. SCLC was staged into 2 categories: limited-stage disease (LS-SCLC) and extensive disease (ES-SCLC). Despite SCLC is sensitive to ra-diotherapy and chemotherapy, SCLC has high tendency for rapid dissemina-tion to regional and distant sites. Median survival time ranged from 2 - 4 months in patients with untreated SCLC. Multiagent chemotherapy was the primary treatment for SCLC. Aim of the work: This retrospective study was conducted to evaluate and analyze clinical features, treatment outcome, sur-vival and prognostic factors affecting survival in patients with SCLC presented to Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine department, Chest department and Medical oncology unit in Mansoura Oncology Centre during the period from 2000-2015. Methods: Data of patients were collected from their files. The information obtained included demographic features, treatment received; its toxicity and outcome, survival and its prognostic factors. Demographic data were: age, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG-PS), smoking status, stage of disease. Data also included disease presentation and metastatic sites. Several factors affecting survival were analysed as age, sex, stage, PS, smoking status and LDH. Results: Sixty-three patients were enrolled in this study. Median age was 56.2 ± 6. Strong male predominance (92.1%) was observed; 84.1% of them were smoker. Thirty six patients (57.2%) were of ECOG-PS of 0 - 1. ES-SCLC was reported in 65% of cases and LDH was high (>1.5 xN) in 47.6%. The most common symptom was chest pain (38.1%) followed by cough (31.8%), weight loss (30%). Fifteen patients had single metastatic site (23.8%) and bone was the most common site of metastasis (reported in 8 patients) followed by brain, lung and liver. 2-year overall survival rate was 35% with median survival time of 14 months. On multivariate analysis, there were significantly higher survival in patients aged < 65 years (P = 0.03), female gender (P = 0.04), LD-SCLC (P = 0.03), good performance status (P = 0.04), low LDH level (P = 0.02) and non-smoker (P = 0.04). Conclusion: This clinico-epidemiologic study provides multiple prognostic factors that have important impact on survival as age, sex, LDH level, stage, smoking and performance status. Larger number of patients and prospective studies are needed to clarify more prognostic factor.