The University of Munich lung cancer group database: design, profile of cohort and outcome analysis.
OBJECTIVE
Changes in therapeutic concepts can only be justified by a significant improvement of outcome parameters. Furthermore, detailed statistics of complications are needed to guarantee high quality of treatment. This study describes the new University of Munich Lung Cancer Group Database.


METHODS
The MLCG-Database contains all patients who underwent surgery for lung cancer at the Department of Surgery, University of Munich Medical Centre since 1978. Data were database recorded on the patient's ward, or directly imported from other departments performing medical examinations on the patient. Data could be entered online at the time of surgery in the operating room. Relevant information from the Munich Tumour Registry was imported via encrypted data communication. Both epidemiological background and influence of preoperative risk factors on morbidity and mortality as well as on long-term survival were analysed.


RESULTS
Median follow-up time was 45 months (1-295 months). Overall 5- and 10-year survival was 36% and 28% respectively. Preoperative risk factors were arterial hypertension in 43% of patients, COPD in 34%, abuse of nicotine in 26% and therapy with corticosteroids in 25%. Surgical procedure consist of lobectomy or bilobectomy in 69%, pneumonectomy in 16% and lesser resections in 15%. Intra- and postoperative complications occurred in 1.4% and 32% of patients, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
This paper provides an overview of our MLCG-Database, which allows performing statistics for outcome analysis and quality management reports as well as medical assessment on a huge collection of patient data on a day-to-day basis. In addition, impact analysis of risk factors on postoperative morbidity and mortality as well as investigation of long-term survival underlines results reported internationally.
Kühnl
Andreas
A
Department of Surgery, Klinikum Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. andreas.kuehnl@med.uni-muenchen.de
Hocaoglu
Y
Y
Herzog
M
M
Schmidt
M
M
Hornung
H-M
HM
Jauch
K-W
KW
Hatz
R
R
Graeb
C
C
D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome