ISSN: 1837-9664Journal of Cancer
Global reach, higher impact
J Cancer 2022; 13(1):51-61. doi:10.7150/jca.55159 This issue Cite
Research Paper
The Association between Pretreatment anemia and Overall Survival in Advanced Non-small Cell lung Cancer: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using Propensity Score Matching
1. Department of Respiratory Oncology, Guangxi Medical University Affiliated Tumor Hospital, No.71 Heti Road, 530021, Nanning City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
2. Oncology Medical College, Guangxi Medical University, No.22 Shuangyong Road, 530021, Nanning City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
* Yucong Huang and Cuiyun Su contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether pretreatment anemia was an independent risk factor for survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after adjusting for other covariates.
Methods: We used propensity score matching (PSM) to minimize the influence of confounding factors and used χ2 (categorical variables), Student's t-test (normal distribution), or Mann-Whitney U test (skewed distribution) to analyze the differences among the Hb groups. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analyses were used to assess the association between anemia and survival. P values < 0.05 (two-sided) were considered statistically significant.
Results: The average age of the 758 selected participants was 58.2±11 years, and 210 patients (27.7%) had anemia. In the multivariate analysis, anemia was associated with a poor prognosis in the unmatched cohort (Hazards ratio (HR)=1.3, 95% (confidence interval (CI): 1.1-1.6; p= 0.008), and the matched cohort (HR=1.7, 95% CI: 1.3-2.3; p <0.001), emerging as an independent risk and prognostic factor in advanced NSCLC patients. In the Kaplan-Meier curve, the average survival time of anemic and non-anemic patients was 9.3 months (95% CI: 7.9-11.4 months) vs. 14.1 months (95% CI: 12-16.3 months) (p=0.0073) in the unmatched cohort. After propensity score matching, the average survival time of anemic and non-anemic patients was 10.9 months (95% CI: 8.8-12.9. months) vs. 17.8 months (95% CI: 16.0-23.3 months) (p <0.001).
Conclusion: Pretreatment anemia was an independent risk and prognostic factor for survival in patients with advanced NSCLC. Large-scale studies are required to confirm our findings.
Keywords: anemia, advanced NSCLC, overall survival, prognosis, propensity score matching
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