BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS) at the time of recurrence on post-recurrence survival (PRS) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after surgical resection.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The clinicopathologic characteristics and outcome data of 266 patients with recurrent NSCLC were collected and reviewed retrospectively. The prognostic impact of mGPS at recurrence in patients with recurrent NSCLC was investigated in univariate and multivariate analyses.

RESULTS: A total of 266 patients were analyzed. The mGPS at the time of recurrence of 0, 1, and 2 was assigned to 60.9%, 33.1%, and 6.0% of total patients, respectively. In univariate analyses, the median post-recurrence survival times for those with mGPS 0, 1, and 2 were 19, 14, and 4 months, respectively (log-rank test; P=0.005). No statistically significant difference in post-recurrence survival was observed among the patients with different mGPS before surgery (log-rank test; P=0.064). Age at surgery, histological type, C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, and mGPS at recurrence significantly predicted PRS. After adjusting for confounding variables in the model, age (hazard ratio 1.59, P=0.003) as well as disease-free interval (DFI) (hazard ratio 1.40, P=0.023), and mGPS at recurrence (hazard ratio 1.47, P=0.002) remained independent predictors of PRS.

CONCLUSIONS: mGPS at the time of recurrence might be an independent adverse prognostic factor in recurrent NSCLC.

Keywords: Patients, Recurrence