Long-term survival analysis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer complicated with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the effect of type 2 diabetes mellitus on survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed NSCLC patients who had undergone radical lung cancer surgery from January 2011 to December 2014 in the Anhui Medical University affiliated Anhui Provincial Hospital. Kaplan-Meier plots, log-rank tests, and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to describe the effect of type 2 diabetes mellitus on the overall survival of patients with NSCLC.

Results: A total of 769 patients with NSCLC were enrolled, including 126 in the diabetic mellitus group and 643 in the nondiabetic mellitus group. The one, three, and five-year survival for patients with and without diabetes mellitus were 86.1% versus 89.6%, 49.5% versus 62.4%, and 33.3% versus 40.6%, respectively. The Cox model showed that type 2 diabetes mellitus was a poor independent prognostic factors for NSCLC patients. In addition, metformin is a good independent prognostic factor for patients with non-small cell lung cancer with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Conclusions: NSCLC patients without type 2 diabetes mellitus have an increased survival rate compared with those with type 2 diabetes mellitus.