Objective

An increasing percentage of patients presenting with lung cancer are of an advanced age. Peri-operative complications are associated with older age. For the purpose of this study we analysed the results of lung resections in patients >75 years. We compared them to patient’s conventionally deemed older (65 – 75 years) and younger patients (< 65 years). We paid attention to 90-day mortality in view of the recent recognition of the significant numbers of patients dying between 30 and 90 days.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective review of a prospectively collected dataset on all patients who underwent anatomical resection for NSCLC in our unit between January 2010 and October 2015. Clinical records were reviewed for patient demographics, pre-operative clinical stage, surgical procedure, pathological stage, and outcomes (30-day and 90-day mortality).For the purpose of this study, we defined a very elderly patient as >75 years, an elderly patient as 65-74 years, and young patients <65 years.

Results

Please see Table in PDF attached.

Conclusion

In our series, 18% of patients are >75 years with a further 42% of patients aged 65–74 years. There is a definite increase in operative mortality with age both at 30 and 90 days. Mortality for lobectomy >75 years is 2 to 3 times that of under 64’s. Although numbers are small, mortality for pneumonectomy in patients >75 is particularly high. Despite this we feel that patients should not be denied curative lung resection on the basis of age alone but every effort should be made to avoid pneumonectomy.