| Lung carcinoma is the most common cause of cancer mortality worldwide and non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) accounts for seventy to eighty percent of lung cancer cases. Despite recent advances in therapeutics including personalized treatment based on molecular testing, overall survival of patients diagnosed with NSCLC remains dismal and 70% will die from the disease within the first year following diagnosis. A variety of studies have been conducted to assess the prognostic factors such as age, sex, histological subtype, stage, co-morbidities, smoking status, and treatment regarding NSCLC in attempts to better predict appropriate therapeutic management and also clinical outcomes. Results however have proven to be inconsistent. This retrospective study analyzed patients from the Bassett Medical Center's tumor registry who were diagnosed with NSCLC from 2005-2010. The information from the patient chart reviews was entered into Microsoft access and statistically analyzed to detect differences if any in survival based on sex, age, stage, histological subtype, smoking status, and co-morbidities using the SAS statistical program. Survival curves and log rank tests determined that stage I/II, adenocarcinoma histology, and being female played a role in increased overall survival based on the population given. This corroborates published reports in literature from a rural medical center and may lead to improvement of patient care by providing more individualistic therapeutics as well as providing patients and providers with valuable information that may influence their prognosis. Prior results published on this topic from larger medical centers correlates with these findings among the rural population of Bassett Medical Center, also that overall 5 year survival rates of NSCLC patients of Bassett fits within nationally accepted rates. |
