Quality of life in the elderly after major lung resection for lung cancer

The objective of this study was to assess the residual quality of life (QoL) in elderly patients submitted to major lung resection for lung cancer. From July 2004 through August 2007 a total of 218 patients, 85 of whom were elderly (70 years), had complete preoperative and postoperative (3 months) quality of life measures assessed by the Short Form 36v2 health survey. QoL scales were compared between elderly and younger patients. Furthermore, limited to the elderly group, we compared the preoperative with the postoperative SF36v2 measures and the physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores between high-risk patients and low-risk counterparts. The postoperative SF36 PCS (50.3 vs. 50, P=0.7) and MCS (50.6 vs. 49, P=0.2) and all SF36 domains did not differ between elderly and younger patients. Within the elderly, the QoL returns to the preoperative values three months after the operation. Moreover, we did not find any significant differences between elderly higher-risk patients and their lower-risk counterparts postoperatively. The information that residual QoL in elderly patients will be similar to the one experienced by younger and fitter individuals may help them in their decision to proceed with surgery.