title: Estimation of survival rates in patients with lung cancer in west Azerbaijan, the northwest of Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lung cancer is a fatal malignancy with high mortality and short survival time. The aim of this study was to estimate survival rates of Iranian patients with lung cancer and its associate predictive factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted on 355 patients admitted to hospitals of West Azerbaijan in the year 2007. The patients were followed up by phone calls until the end of June 2014. The survival rate was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test for comparison. The Cox's proportional hazard model was used to investigate the effect of various variables on patient survival time, including age, sex, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance, smoking status, tumor type, tumor stage, treatment, metastasis, and blood hemoglobin concentration.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 355 patients under study, 240 died and 115 were censored. The mean and median survival time of patients was 13 and 4.8 months, respectively. According to the results of Kaplan-Meier method, 1, 2, and 3 years survival rates were 39%, 18%, and 0.07%, respectively. Based on Cox regression analysis, the risk of death was associated with ECOG group V (1.83, 95% CI: 1 CONCLUSIONS: The survival time of the patients with lung cancer is very short. While early diagnosis may improve the life expectancy effective treatment is not available.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran E-mail : mahjub@umsha.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Malek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abazari
authors.forename: Mahdia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gholamnejad
authors.forename: Ghodratollah
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Roshanaei
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abazari
authors.forename: Yousef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Roosta
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mahjub
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D000368:Aged; D002276:Carcinoid Tumor / Q000401:mortality* / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality* / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate