Association of performance in a stair-climbing test with complications and survival after lung cancer resection in the video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery era: population-based outcomes

• Main Authors: Olli Helminen, Johanna Valo, Heidi Andersen, Johan Söderström, Eero Sihvo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: European Respiratory Society 2021-08-01
• Series: ERJ Open Research
• Online Access: http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/7/3/00110-2021.full

Introduction With a population-based cohort in the video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) era, we aimed to evaluate the value of the stair-climbing test (SCT) on short- and long-term outcomes of lung cancer surgery. Methods All patients operated due to primary lung cancer in Central Finland and Ostrobothnia from 2013 to June 2020 were included. For the analysis, clinical variables including the outcome of SCT and cause-specific mortality were available. Short- and long-term outcomes were compared between <11 m (n=66) and >12 m SCT (n=217) groups. Results Patients with poor performance (<11 m) had more comorbidities and worse lung function but did not differ in tumour stage or treatment. No differences between groups were observed in major morbidity rate (10.6% versus 11.1%, p=0.918) or median hospital stay (5 (IQR 4–7) versus 4 (IQR 3–7), p=0.179). At 1-year, fewer patients were alive and living at home in the climbing <11 m group (81.3%) compared to the >12 m group (94.2%), p=0.002. No difference was observed in cancer-specific 5-year survival. Non-cancer-specific survival (62.9% versus 83.1%, p<0.001) and overall survival (49.9% versus 70.0%, p<0.001) were worse in the <11 m group. After adjustment for confounding factors, SCT remained as a significant predictor for non-cancer-specific (HR 4.28; 95% CI 2.10–8.73) and overall mortality (HR 2.38; 95% CI 1.43–3.98). Conclusions With SCT-based exercise testing, VATS can be performed safely, with a similar major morbidity rate in the poor performance group (<11 m) compared to >12 m group. Poor exercise performance increases non-cancer-specific mortality. Being a major predictor of survival, exercise capacity should be included in prognostic models.