Relation of body size to prognosis in lung cancer patients

A survival analysis was conducted among a sample of 463 men and 212 women with histologically confirmed lung cancer. Interview information from these patients was obtained from two population-based case-control studies of lung cancer conducted on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, between 1979 and 1985. The interview consisted of a complete tobacco history, and other demographic and lifestyle information. Records from the Hawaii Tumor Registry were reviewed for data on stage, histology, and follow-up status of these patients. Height, weight in early adulthood, and weight five years prior to diagnosis were inversely related to survival among women, after adjustment for age at diagnosis, stage, histology, ethnicity, and smoking status. No relationship of these variables to survival was found among men. The association of body size and the relative risk of death among women was strongest for patients with small cell cancer, although the association was not restricted to this cell type. The covariate-adjusted median survival times for female never-smokers below the 50th percentile of weight in early- and late-adulthood was at least twice as long as that for any other group (46 cf 17–23 months). There was no evidence for an interaction between weight in early adulthood and weight five years prior to diagnosis on the risk of death among women. Stage at diagnosis and education did not modify the association of the anthropometric variables and survival. These data suggest that weight and height may be associated with prognosis for women with lung cancer.