P192 Short-term outcome of attempted curative resection for lung cancer in elderly patients

Abstract

Background: Although resection offers the best chance of cure formost solid tumours, including the lung, <2% of elderly patients (>80 age years) undergo this treatment often because of theirperceived frailty and complication rates. Since lung cancer is adisease of the elderly, with up to 30% occurring in this age group, wewere interested to review the results of attempted curative resectionin older patients referred to our tertiary thoracic surgical unit. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of all 1481 patients aged 60or older who had undergone single or bi-lobectomy with curativeintent from 2001 to 2008, and divided them into age groups 60-79(1360 cases, 663 female) and 80+ (121, 41).We looked at their clinicalparameters, and then compared the results of surgery in terms ofshort-term mortality, complication rates, and length of stay. Results: The older patients had smoked less (median 30 pack years[IQR 20e50] vs 40 [20-54], p<0.5), and had better lung function(FEV1 88% [73-103] vs 81% [66e93], p<0.001), but had more heartdisease (41% vs 29%, p<0.001). Postoperative results are given in theAbstract P192 table 1. (Graph presented) Conclusion: Although the older patients had more postoperativecomplications, 94% survived the procedure, indicating that surgicalresection with curative intent is a viable proposition in selectedcases of lung cancer in the elderly. Thus, age should not be a bar tosurgical treatment in the older age group, and this study reiteratesthe need to consider potentially curative surgery for all age groupswith this life threatening disease.