title: Weight loss at the time of diagnosis is not associated with prognosis in patients with advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the prognostic value of weight loss before diagnosis in patients with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with first-line chemotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 81 NSCLC patients with stages IIIB/IV were included in this retrospective cross-sectional study. Study variables were weight loss in the last 3 months before diagnosis, patient demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics and histological features of the tumor before administering first-line chemotherapy. Then, the patients were stratified into 4 groups based on their weight loss before being diagnosed with NSCLC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients were predominantly male (68%), with a smoking history (62%), 5 to 10 kg weight loss in the last 3 months (31%), and had metastatic disease (64%) and adenocarcinoma (40%) at the time of diagnosis. On the other hand, most of the patients with 5 to 10 kg weight loss in the last 3 months before diagnosis had squamous cell carcinoma (44%), stage IV disease (56%), and the first disease progression was in the brain (64%). Pre-diagnosis weight loss had a negative impact on progression-free survival (PFS), independent from weight loss during first-line chemotherapy, but no such effect was noticed on overall survival (OS).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pre-diagnosis weight loss was found to have a negative impact on PFS in patients with NSCLC treated by first-line chemotherapy. Similar studies in larger patient series are warranted.
authors: Mugla University Medical Faculty, Department of Internal Medicine, Mugla, Turkey.
authors: Cem
authors: C
authors: Sahin
authors: Muhyettin
authors: M
authors: Omar
authors: Hasan
authors: H
authors: Tunca
authors: Serdar
authors: S
authors: Kalemci
authors: Burak
authors: B
authors: Ozseker
authors: Gulhan
authors: G
authors: Akbaba
authors: Ozgur
authors: O
authors: Tanriverdi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015431:Weight Loss