Severity of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and the Prognosis of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Objectives: We retrospectively analyzed whether the severity of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) affected disease-specific survival in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients after surgical resection. Methods: We enrolled 210 NSCLC patients who underwent curative surgery between 2009 and 2011. Classification of COPD severity was based on guidelines of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Results: A total of 55 patients were diagnosed with COPD. The 5-year disease-specific survival of patients with COPD was not different compared with that of patients without COPD. Among the COPD patients, 40 were classified as GOLD 1, 13 as GOLD 2, and 2 as GOLD 3. Although the number of patients with GOLD 2 - 3 was small, the 5-year disease-specific survival of patients with GOLD 2 - 3 was significantly poorer. We found the prognostic significance of GOLD 2 - 3 in univariate analysis, but failed to find this in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: There is a possibility that the severity of COPD might be useful to predict the prognosis of NSCLC patients. Further studies with large study population are needed.