Study on Survival of Lung Cancer Patients in Taiwan-Relative Survival and Comorbidity on Survival

• Main Authors: Chen, Shu Hui, 陳淑慧
• Other Authors: Chao, Hsiung
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/86368736168416896123

碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 生物資訊與結構生物研究所 === 104 === Early lung cancer is mostly asymptomatic. Around 80% of patients with lung cancer have advanced stage, resulting ineffective treatment and poorer survival. Compared to general population, the 5-year relative survival for lung cancer is only 11%-23%. According to American National Cancer Institute report, patients with severe comorbidities at the time of cancer diagnosis increased mortality rate. Comorbidity is the most common among lung cancer patients than other cancers. There is not much study on comorbidity and lung cancer in Taiwan. Thus, in this thesis, we will examine lung cancer patients diagnosed from 2003 to 2013 in Taiwan through National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). First, we will observe the relationship between lung cancer survival and comorbidity within 1 and 3 year preceeding the date of lung cancer diagnosis. Our study found that the 5-year survival for the patients with no comorbidity are 11.8%-23.7%, while the patients with high level comorbidity are 6.8%-13.0%. The results indicated that the higher level of comorbidity, the poorer survival for lung cancer (p < .001). Second, in order to compute the lung cancer relative survival, we randomly sampled general population from NHIRD to represent Taiwanese. The two groups from lung cancer patients and general population were matched for age and gender respectively, then the 5-year relative survival, i.e. ratio of survival for lung cancer patients to the survival of a comparable group of general population was estimated. The results showed that the 5-year relative survival increased from 13.1% to 24.4% across all calendar periods, especially for women and older people.