YANG Y, et al. – The clinical characteristics and prognosis of elderly small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients complicated with hyponatremia were appraised. In this study, the severity of hyponatremia resulted in unfavorable prognostic impacts. These patients were difficult to cure and demonstrated an association with significantly shorter survival, especially in the uncorrected group. Hence, it was crucial to diagnose the cause of the hyponatremia at an early stage.

Methods

• The clinicians retrospectively studied the clinical data of 320 patients with SCLC in the Yuhuangding Hospital from March 1st, 2006, to March 1st, 2012.
• Examination was done for the prognosis and possible association with hyponatremia.

Results

• As per the observations, the incidence rate of hyponatremia in SCLC was 46.56% (149/320).
• In patients with normal values, the mean survival time was 1.10±0.42 years and 0.83±0.35 years in patients with subnormal serum sodium.
• In the hyponatremia group, the mean survival time of corrected hyponatremia patients was 0.91±0.42 years.
• Moreover, it was significantly longer than uncorrected hyponatremia patients whose mean survival time was 0.68±0.26 years (t=2.75, p<0.05) after symptomatic treatment.
• When compared to another group of patients younger than 60 years old, the mean survival time of the normal group and the hyponatremia group in elderly patients had a tendency to decrease.
• An association of hyponatremia at 1- and 3-year follow-up with worse survival rates (p<0.05) was reported.