Highly elevated systemic inflammation is a strong independent predictor of early mortality in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

•High systemic inflammation is common in advanced stage lung cancer and is an independent strong predictor of poor outcomes.•A high inflammation score has an independent survival impact equal to deterioration of performance status from ECOG 0 to 2.•Routine laboratory blood tests can be used to define the NSCLC group with the highest degree of systemic inflammation. Ample evidence support inflammation as a marker of outcome in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here we explore the outcome for a subgroup of patients with advanced disease and substantially elevated systemic inflammatory activity. The source cohort included consecutive patients diagnosed with NSCLC between January 2016 – May 2017 (n = 155). Patients with active infection were excluded. Blood parameters were examined individually, and cut-offs (ESR > 60 mm, CRP > 20 mg/L, WBC > 10 × 109, PLT > 400 × 109) were set to define the group of hyperinflamed patients. A score was developed by assigning one point for each parameter above cut-off (0–4 points). High systemic inflammation was associated with advanced stage and was seldom present in limited NSCLC. However, the one year survival of patients in stage IIIB-IV (n = 93) with an inflammation score of ≥2 was 0% compared to 33% and 50% among patients with a score of 1 and 0 respectively. The effect of a high inflammation score on overall survival remained significant in multi-variate analysis adjusted for confounding factors. The independent hazard ratio of an inflammation score ≥ 2 in multi-variate analysis (HR 3.43, CI 1.76–6.71) was comparable to a change in ECOG PS from 0 to 2 (HR 2.42, CI 1.13–5.18). Our results show that high level systemic inflammation is a strong independent predictor of poor survival in advanced stage NSCLC. This observation may indicate a need to use hyperinflammation as an additional clinical parameter for stratification of patients in clinical studies and warrants further research on underlying mechanisms linked to tumor progression.