Objectives Among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), there are those who do not have a spouse, family members, or friends to support them in their cancer treatment and daily life: the kinless patients. Therefore, we designed an exploratory study of kinlessness and the prognosis of advanced NSCLC. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the prognosis of clinical factors and treatment and kinlessness in patients with advanced NSCLC with wild-type or unknown status for epidermal growth factor receptor/anaplastic lymphoma kinase (EGFR/ALK) and who visited our hospital from November 2018 to February 2023. In addition to the survival analysis by kinlessness, a multivariable analysis of survival was performed for all clinical factors. In a secondary analysis, a multivariable analysis of the choice of best supportive care (BSC) was performed for all clinical factors. Results One hundred forty-four patients are included in our cohort. There were 131 patients with kin, with a median survival of 1.34 years (95% CI of 1.01-1.79 years). There were 13 patients has no kin, with a median survival of 0.53 years (95% CI 0.23-0.76 years). The log-rank analysis showed that kinless patients had significantly shorter overall survival than patients who have kin. A Cox regression analysis showed that age, distant metastasis, performance status, and kinlessness were associated with overall survival. Secondary analysis showed that there was no statistical association between kinlessness and the choice of BSC in our cohort. Conclusions Kinless patients had shorter survival than patients who have kin in our single-center, retrospective study of patients with advanced NSCLC with wild-type or unknown status for (EGFR/ALK). Further research to evaluate the clinical impact of kinlessness in the treatment of advanced NSCLC is needed.
Keywords: advanced non-small cell lung cancer; best supportive care; chemotherapy; decision-support; kinlessness; oncology; palliative care; retrospective study.
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