Study population

A total of 67 chemotherapy-naïve patients who were admitted to Medical Oncology Department for the first time and were pathologically diagnosed as NSCLC were evaluated. A written informed consent was obtained from each participant. The study protocol was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Pamukkale University Medical Faculty (no: 02/date: February 24, 2009). The study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

The patients at advanced stage (stage IIIB and stage IV) whose performance status (PS) was 0, 1, 2 according to the World Health Organization classification were included in the study. The patients whose PS was 3 and worse on admission, those with cranial metastasis or suspicion of cranial metastasis, patients aged 80 years and above, those at early stage (I, II, and IIIA), those who were unwilling to give a written informed consent, and those who refused to answer the questionnaire were excluded from the study.

The control group consisted of a total of 20 healthy individuals without a known chronic disease. All individuals in the control group were age and sex matched.

Age, sex, and anthropometric measurements of the patient and the control groups, type of tumor, treatment, and pretreatment performances of the patients were recorded. The presence of weight loss at the time of diagnosis was questioned. Weight loss at the time of diagnosis was defined as a weight loss of more than 10% within the past 6 months. Cachexia was defined as a BMI ⩽20.