| Patient characteristics | Improvement | No improvement | Univariate p-value |
| Subjects n | 37 | 58 | |
| Age years | 0.033 | ||
| <75 | 28 (76) | 31 (53) | |
| ≥75 | 9 (24) | 27 (47) | |
| Sex | 0.278 | ||
| Male | 20 (54) | 39 (67) | |
| Female | 17 (46) | 19 (33) | |
| Smoking status | 0.448 | ||
| Never-smoker | 10 (27) | 11 (19) | |
| Current or former smoker | 27 (73) | 47 (81) | |
| Histology | 0.354 | ||
| Adenocarcinoma | 8 (22) | 18 (31) | |
| Non-adenocarcinoma | 29 (78) | 40 (69) | |
| ECOG PS at emergency admission | 0.041 | ||
| 2 | 16 (43) | 13 (22) | |
| 3 or 4 | 21 (57) | 45 (78) | |
| Stage | 0.559 | ||
| III B | 6 (16) | 7 (12) | |
| IV | 31 (84) | 51 (88) | |
| Reasons for emergency admission | |||
| Brain metastasis | 12 (32) | 12 (21) | 0.231 |
| Pleural effusion | 12 (32) | 4 (7) | 0.002 |
| Pneumonia | 3 (8) | 10 (17) | 0.239 |
Data are presented as n (%), unless otherwise stated. N=95. DFEA: diagnosed following an emergency admission; PS: performance status; ECOG: Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group.