Serum hemoglobin level determined at the first presentation is a poor prognostic indicator in patients with lung cancer

Objectives: Anemia is observed in various malignancies including lung cancer and is recently considered to be a poor prognostic indicator. We investigated whether there is a correlation between anemia, other clinicopathologic factors, and survival. Methods: We retrospectively examined the clinical records of 611 patients with lung cancer. Results: Of those, 298 (48.8%) patients had anemia at the time of their first visit to our hospital. There was a significant correlation between anemia and age (p=0.0006) or ECOG performance status (p=0.0002), however, there was no correlation of anemia with gender, histological type, clinical stage, or serum level of lactate dehydrogenase. Survival was significantly shorter in 298 patients with anemia (median survival time (MST): 7.5 months) compared with 313 patients without anemia (MST: 11.8 months, p<0.0001). Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors using the Cox proportional hazards model revealed that anemia appeared to be an independent prognostic indicator. Conclusion: Anemia observed at the first presentation is an independent poor prognostic indicator in patients with lung cancer.