Suleyman Yildirim, Ozcan Alpdogan, Cenk Kirakli
Journal of Critical and Intensive Care - 2026;17(1):29-35
Aim: Patients diagnosed with lung cancer may require intensive care due to sudden and se - vere clinical events; however, early survival outcomes vary widely. In this context, we inves - tigated ICU mortality and analyzed admission-specific clinical characteristics associated with death in a healthcare setting where access to intensive care is not limited by predefined ad - mission criteria. Study Design: The study population consisted of adult individuals with lung cancer who re - quired intensive care from 2018 to 2022. Patient demographics, cancer-related features, in - dications for ICU admission, illness severity indices, requirements for organ-supportive ther - apies, and clinical outcomes were systematically evaluated. Associations between baseline variables and ICU mortality were examined using multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results: The study cohort comprised 351 critically ill patients with lung cancer. The median age was 66 years, and ICU mortality occurred in 76% of cases. The presence of metastatic disease independently increased the risk of death (OR 2.32, 95% CI 1.26-4.26). In contrast, patients admitted due to hypercapnic respiratory failure demonstrated a significantly lower mortality risk (OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.17-0.75). Higher illness severity scores were consistently associated with unfavorable outcomes. Conclusions: Despite significant advances in intensive care medicine, short-term outcomes for lung cancer patients admitted to the ICU remain unfavorable. Disease burden, reflected by metastatic status and severity scores, strongly influences outcomes, whereas patients admit - ted with hypercapnic respiratory failure demonstrate a more favorable prognosis.
