Evaluation of Staging at Diagnosis and Its Relationship with Survival Duration in Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer Cases in Southern India

Introduction Lung cancer is one of the most common forms of malignancies worldwide. It is usually diagnosed in late stages due to overlapping symptoms with other respiratory illnesses. Identifying the stage at presentation to tertiary care determines the prognosis of a patient to large extent. Methods Histologically/cytologically confirmed cases of nonsmall cell lung cancer subjects were included for prospective observational study. Stages of the disease at presentation and survival duration in the patients were studied and the data were compared between two groups: those that accepted and those that refused standard treatment. Results Ninety-two percent of our patients presented either stage IIIB or stage IV disease at the time of diagnosis. Median duration of survival in the group that took standard treatment was 6 months, whereas in the group that refused standard treatment, it was 4 months. Based on their smoking status, the median duration of survival was 4 months among smokers, whereas it was 9 months among nonsmokers with a log rank test value of 3.040 and an insignificant p-value of 0.081. Conclusion More than 90% patients presented in later stages of the disease and there was no survival benefit in patients who were treated with palliative care.