patients
We found no significant difference in the incidence of severe (>=grade 3) EGFR-TKI-related AEs between PP(+) and PP(−) older advanced NSCLC patients (29.2% vs. 32.2%; P = 0.66; OR = 0.87; 95% CI = 0.47–1.60). Overall unexpected hospitalization during EGFR-TKI treatment was more in PP(+) patients compared to PP(−) patients (49.4% vs. 29.4%; P = 0.0032; OR = 2.34; 95% CI = 1.31–4.23). In addition, PP(+) patients experienced more frequent unexpected hospitalization because of exacerbation of NSCLC (29.2% vs. 9.8%;P < 0.001; OR = 3.78; 95% CI = 1.76–8.41) or complications unrelated to lung cancer or EGFR-TKI-related AEs (23.6% vs. 11.2%; P =0.016; OR = 2.44; 95% CI = 1.13–5.37) compared to PP(−) patients. In contrast, we found no significant difference in the frequency of unexpected hospitalization because of EGFR-TKI-related AEs between PP(+) and PP(−) patients (5.6% vs. 12.6%; P = 0.11; OR = 0.42; 95% CI = 0.12–1.22) (Table 3 ).