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Background: Lung cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer. Smoking causes roughly 90% of lung cancer cases. Concurrent chemoradiation therapy is the standard of care for stage IIIb patients with performance status (PS) 0-1. A less toxic approach is warranted for less fit patients. To optimize care, the understanding of common clinical variables such as haematological responses to inflammation could be much improved. Adherence to guidelines for proper clinical work-up is vital to ensure patients’ optimal care, especially for predictive assays. Screening of high-risk patients is now being implemented internationally. Chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD) patients, a group at high risk to develop lung cancer, could be of interest for screening.

Methods: Patient cohorts collected nationally and regionally by manual search in patient records or automated search in electronic patient records and national registries were analysed in relation to overall survival, comorbidities, medication, treatment, smoking status, biomarkers and adherence to guidelines. Standard statistics were applied to adjust for confounding factors.

Results: Induction chemotherapy results in longer overall survival than radiotherapy alone (15.6 and 11.6 months respectively). The overall survival for patients with combined anaemia, leucocytosis and thrombocytosis at diagnosis is half of what could be anticipated if blood samples are normal (8.0 and 16.0 months respectively). Fifty percent of patients were overlooked in the routine work-up with EGFR analysis. Less than 40% of the patients received EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors in first-line therapy. The frequency of EGFR mutation was 9.9%. COPD patients with asthma and medicating with inhaled corticosteroids, specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) or beta-blockers have a significantly decreased risk of lung cancer.

Conclusions: Patients unfit to receive chemoradiation therapy should be considered for induction chemotherapy sequentially to radiotherapy. A patient that presents with pathological blood samples is likely to have poor prognosis and diagnostic work-up should be thorough to optimize outcome. Inadequate adherence to the national guidelines regarding treatment and EGFR analysis was shown. COPD patients medicating with ICS, beta-blockers or SSRI and with a concurrent asthma diagnosis have a decreased risk of lung cancer.