Introduction: Minimal (< 10 mm in thickness) pericardial effusion (PCE) can be incidentally detected by computed tomography at the time of diagnosis in patients with lung cancer. Although malignant PCE is known to be associated with poor prognosis, the impact of minimal PCE on outcome has remained unclear. We therefore examined the prognostic relevance of minimal PCE in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Patients and methods: We retrospectively analyzed consecutive patients diagnosed with stage IV NSCLC at Kindai University Hospital between April 2009 and March 2015. The patients were classified into 3 groups on the basis of the presence and thickness of PCE: no PCE, minimal (< 10 mm) PCE, and malignant (≥ 10 mm) PCE. The relation between overall survival and PCE status was examined with a Cox proportional hazards model.
Results: The total of 428 enrolled patients included 327 (76.4%) in the no PCE group, 61 (14.3%) in the minimal PCE group, and 40 (9.3%) in the malignant PCE group. Median overall survival was 15.0, 10.1, and 7.6 months in the no PCE, minimal PCE, and malignant PCE groups, respectively, with the survival of patients with minimal PCE thus being intermediate between that of the other 2 groups (P = .003). Multivariable analysis revealed that minimal PCE was independently associated with reduced survival (hazard ratio, 1.46; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-1.96; P = .019).
Conclusions: The presence of minimal PCE was an independent prognostic factor for reduced survival in patients with advanced NSCLC.
Keywords: Computed tomography; Non–small-cell lung cancer; Pericardial effusion; Prognosis; Stage IV.
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