Clinical management patterns and treatment outcomes in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) across Europe: EPICLIN-Lung study

AbstractBackground:Throughout Europe, physicians face similar challenges in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) management, but comprehensive international information on usual clinical practice is lacking so the burden of NSCLC is not fully understood.Methods:This multinational, multicentre, non-interventional study (NCT00831909) was conducted in eight European countries. Patients with confirmed NSCLC were consecutively enrolled from January to March 2009 and followed for 12 months or until death. Information was collected on patient and disease characteristics, diagnosis and treatment patterns, and clinical outcomes. Spontaneously reported adverse events (AEs) were also recorded.Results:Data were available for 3508 patients. Most patients (77.5%) were male, median (range) age was 65.0 years (21.6–90.7), the majority of patients had a World Health Organization performance status of ≤1 (74.7%), and 10.8% were never smokers. The most prevalent histologies were adenocarcinoma (43.8%) and squamous-cell carcin...