Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Background: Echocardiographic indicators of pulmonary hypertension have been reported to predict decreased survival in lung cancer. We sought to test the hypothesis that this may be associated with impaired right ventricular (RV)-systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (sPAP) coupling, further enhancing the prognostic strength of echocardiography in lung cancer.
Methods: This prospective observational study included 220 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) examined by Doppler, strain and 3D echocardiography before starting therapy. Prediction of overall survival was assessed by univariable analysis followed by multivariate Cox regression, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and Kaplan-Meier analyses.
Results: Echocardiographic examination was on average within normal limits, even though 30% of the patients had sPAP ≥35 mm Hg. In univariable analysis, overall survival was associated with measures of RV systolic function and probability of pulmonary hypertension. In multivariate Cox regression, only RV global longitudinal strain (GLS)/sPAP (HR: 5.766 [95% CI: 1.025–32.443]) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status <2 (HR: 0.332 [95% CI: 0.171–0.644]) independently predicted survival. The optimal ROC curve-derived RV GLS/sPAP cut-off to predict survival was −0.54%/mm Hg. Among patients in Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) stage 4, those with impaired RV-arterial coupling (RV GLS/sPAP >−0.54%/mm Hg) had worse survival than those with maintained RV-arterial coupling (HR: 2.8 [95% CI: 1.5–5.3]); the latter subgroup had similar survival compared with patients in UICC stage 3 (HR: 0.57 [95% CI: 0.28–1.14]).
Conclusion: RV GLS/sPAP as an echocardiographic measure of RV-arterial coupling adds to prognostication by the UICC status in NSCLC.