Objective: We examined whether cancers frequently occur in hemodialysis patients, and therefore, investigated the features and outcomes of hemodialysis patients who had undergone surgery for non-small cell lung cancer.
Methods: Between 1995 and 2011, 14 hemodialysis patients with lung cancer (8 males and 6 females) with a mean age of 67.0 years successfully underwent pulmonary resection at our institution. We investigated the 5-year survival rate and causes of death. The occurrence of multiple primary cancers in our patients and other lung-cancer patients reported in the articles were statistically compared by Chi-square test. A p value <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Results: The 5-year survival rate was 47.3 %, and six patients had died before our investigation. Four of the six had died of non-cancerous diseases related to hemodialysis. Five of 14 patients had a history of other primary cancers in other organs, and this incidence rate of multiple primary cancers was significantly higher than in other lung-cancer patients (p = 0.0071).
Conclusion: The frequency of cancer in hemodialysis patients can be underestimated because of their early deaths by non-cancerous diseases. However, the incidence rate of multiple primary cancers may represent a unique characteristic of such patients.