Prediction of chemotherapy adverse reactions and mortality in older patients with primary lung cancer through frailty index based on routine laboratory data

OBJECTIVES: To assess the role of a pre-chemotherapy frailty index based on routine laboratory data in predicting mortality and chemotherapy adverse reactions among older patients with primary lung cancer. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study SETTING: West China Hospital, Chengdu, China PARTICIPANTS: We included patients aged ≥60 years with primary lung cancer receiving the first course of chemotherapy. MEASUREMENTS: Data were collected from medical records, local government death databases or telephone interviews. Outcomes included chemotherapy adverse reactions and all-cause mortality. We constructed a frailty index based on 44 laboratory variables (FI-LAB) before chemotherapy, and chose the following cutoff points: robust (0.0–0.2), pre-frail (0.2–0.35) and frail (≥0.35). RESULTS: We included 1,020 patients (71.4% male; median age: 65 years old). Both pre-frailty and frailty was associated with any chemotherapy adverse reactions and infections during chemotherapy (OR=3.48, 95%CI: 1.77–6.87; OR=3.58, 95%CI: 1.55–8.26, respectively). Frail patients had a shorter median overall survival rate compared to robust patients (18.05 months vs 38.89 months, log-rank p<0.001). After adjusting for some potential confounding variables, the risk of all-cause mortality was dramatically increased in frail patients (HR:2.13, 95% CI:1.51–3.00) with an average follow-up of 3.9 years. Each 0.01 or per standard deviation (SD) increase in the FI-LAB value significantly increased the HR of death by 2.0% (HR:1.02, 95% CI: 1.01–1.03) and 23.0% (HR: 1.23, 95% CI: 1.13–1.34), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Frailty assessed by routine laboratory data indicates increased risks of chemotherapy adverse reactions and death in older patients with primary lung cancer receiving the first course of chemotherapy.