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

Abstract

Introduction With a population-based cohort in the VATS era, we aimed to evaluate the value of 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 12 m SCT (n=217) groups. Results Patients with poor performance (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 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%, pversus 70.0%, pConclusions With SCT-based exercise testing, VATS can be performed safely, with similar major morbidity rate in poor performance group (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.