Background: Tumor genetic information and biologic markers are often used as prognostic factors. However, these are limited in real daily practice due to their high cost.

Objective: To evaluate which inexpensive, convenient, and simple prognostic factors are associated with survival outcome with first line treatment among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort study reviewed the medical charts of patients diagnosed as advanced NSCLC with no previous treatment at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital and Police General Hospital between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2013.

Results: Three hundred one patients were included in the present study, 68.1% males. The pre-treatment prognostic factors found to be significantly associated with outcome were the number of organs involved (p<0.05), simple biomarkers, the absolute neutrophil/lymphocyte count ratio (p<0.001), albumin/globulin ratio (p=0.010), the ECOG status (p<0.005), and current smoker (p=0.001).

Conclusion: The pre-treatment prognostic factors significantly associated with outcome were the number of organs involved, the neutrophil/absolute lymphocyte ratio, the serum albumin/globulin ratio, the ECOG status, and the smoking status. These factors could potentially be used to develop a simple model to determine pre-treatment prognosis among NSCLC patients.

Keywords: Prognostic factors, Survival, Lung cancer

Received 25 May 2017 | Revised 27 Dec 2017 | Accepted 28 Dec 2017